Wallops launch tests astronaut escape system

ATLANTIC — NASA launched an astronaut escape system test from its Eastern Shore space center today.

The 33-foot, 45,000-pound vehicle lifted off about 6:25 a.m. Wednesday from the Wallops Flight Facility in Atlantic.

NASA says the test vehicle rose to an altitude of about 1 mile before smaller motors ejected the full-scale, unstaffed crew module away from it. All the pieces floated down to the Atlantic Ocean on parachutes.

The NASA Constellation Program is developing the astronaut escape system for its Orion spacecraft, which is designed to carry humans to the International Space Station by 2015 and to the lunar surface by 2020.