MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s newest space vehicle, Orion, accomplished its first test flight with precision and pizazz Friday, shooting more than 3,600 miles out from Earth for a hyperfast, hot return not seen since the Apollo moon shots.

For a space agency still feeling the loss of its shuttles, the four-hour voyage opened a new era of human space exploration, with Mars as the plum. It even brought some rocket engineers to tears.

“There’s your new spacecraft, America,” Mission Control’s Rob Navias said as the unmanned Orion capsule came in for a Pacific splashdown after two orbits of Earth.

NASA is counting on future Orions to carry astronauts out into the solar system, to Mars and beyond.

The next Orion flight, also unmanned, is four years off, and crewed flights at least seven years away given present budget constraints. But the Orion team — spread across the country and out in the ocean, is hoping Friday’s triumphant splashdown will pick up the momentum.

“We challenged our best and brightest to continue to lead in space,” lead flight director Mike Sarafin said with emotion as he signed off from Mission Control in Houston. “While this was an unmanned mission, we were all on board Orion.”

W. Michael Hawes, a former NASA official who now leads the Orion program for prime contractor Lockheed Martin Corp., choked up as he recalled the pre-shuttle days.

“We started with all the Apollo guys still there. So we’ve kind of now finally done something for the first time for our generation,” he said, pausing for composure. “It’s a good thing.”

Orion splashed down 270 miles off Mexico’s Baja peninsula, just a mile from the projected spot — “a bull’s-eye” according to NASA. Navy ships quickly moved in to transport the crew module 600 miles to San Diego, where it was expected Monday. From there, it will be loaded onto a truck and returned to Cape Canaveral just in time for Christmas.

Preliminary test reports were encouraging: Not only did the capsule arrive intact, all eight parachutes deployed and onboard computers withstood the intense radiation of the Van Allen belts surrounding Earth. What’s more, everything meant to jettison away did so as Orion soared into space.

“It’s hard to have a better day than today,” said a beaming Mark Geyer, NASA’s Orion program manager.

Sensors placed inside and out of the crew module will tell the full story: “Our big focus now is to get that data from those 1,200 sensors so they can pore over it in the next month or so,” Geyer said.

Most critical was the heat shield covering Orion’s bottom, the largest of its kind ever made. NASA wanted to be sure it would hold before committing to a human mission.

Orion reached a peak altitude of 3,604 miles, higher than any crew module since NASA’s final manned moon mission, Apollo 17, in 1972. That’s more than 14 times higher than the International Space Station.

The capsule came in over the Pacific at 20,000 mph and endured 4,000 degrees. In just 11 minutes, it slowed to 20 mph for splashdown. A crew would have endured as much as 8.2 Gs, or 8.2 times the force of Earth gravity, double the Gs of a returning Russian Soyuz capsule, according to NASA.

Earth shrank from view through Orion’s capsule window during its trip out into space, and stunning images were relayed back home. Having part of the window frame in the picture drove home the fact that this will be an astronaut’s view from inside, Geyer said.

“It’s different than a satellite taking a picture of the Earth … very moving,” he said.

More spectacular views came from Orion’s return, recorded by an unmanned drone flying over the recovery zone. Helicopters also provided images of the crew module bobbing in the water. Three of the five air bags deployed properly, enough to keep the capsule floating upright. All but two parachutes were lost at sea.

This inaugural run was intended to be brief — just two laps around Earth, shorter than even John Glenn’s orbital achievement in 1962.

The same capsule will be reused around 2017 for a launch abort test, followed by a second Orion heading to space in 2018 aboard the SLS megarocket NASA is developing.

“The sight of the Orion on top of the Space Launch System is going to take your breath away, even before it takes flight,” promised astronaut Rex Walheim.

Officials expect it will be 2021 before Orion carries people, but NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. was already calling Friday’s test “Day One of the Mars era.”

Indeed, the team working the Mars Curiosity rover tweeted a quick congrats: “We’re one step closer to bootprints next to these rover tracks.”

Lockheed Martin, which handled the $370 million test flight for NASA using a Delta IV rocket, already has begun work on a second Orion and plans to build a whole fleet. An asteroid redirected to lunar orbit is intended for the first stop in the 2020s, followed by Mars in the 2030s. Monthslong journeys would include habitats as well as the four-person capsules, which are bigger than the old-style Apollo and considerably enhanced.

“Everybody wants to go to Mars,” Walheim noted, “and it’s important to go there to figure out what happened to Mars and establish our presence on another planet to become a multiplanetary species.”

The atmosphere surrounding Friday’s smooth sunrise launch — one day late because of wind and valve trouble — was a throwback to the shuttle-flying days, but considerably more upbeat than that last 2011 mission. Walheim was on board for that mission and welcomed all the excitement returning to Kennedy Space Center.

Chris Tarkenton, who traveled from Poquoson, Virginia, to watch from a nearby causeway, called the whole thing “awe inspiring.”

“It’s been a while since we’ve been able to launch something of this magnitude,” he said.

This Orion — serial number 001 — lacked seats, cockpit displays and life-support equipment, but brought along bundles of toys and memorabilia: bits of moon dust; the crew patch worn by Sally Ride, America’s first spacewoman; a Capt. James Kirk doll owned by “Star Trek” actor William Shatner.

Officials noted that in two days, it will be exactly 42 years since Apollo 17 launched.

“Here we are again now, the United States leading exploration out into the solar system,” Geyer told reporters.

Before the news conference ended, a rainbow appeared in the sky.

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, President Barack Obama signed Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins’ (KS-02) and U.S. Senator Jerry Moran’s (R-Kan.) legislation, H.R. 4067, into law. This law will delay Medicare’s enforcement of unreasonable and inflexible direct supervision rules for outpatient therapy services at Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and other small, rural hospitals in 2014.

“This law has been a long time in the making and it would not have been possible without the hard work and leadership of Senator Moran and the number of folks who helped advocate for access to rural healthcare,” said Congresswoman Jenkins. “I am pleased Republicans and Democrats put their differences aside and put people in rural communities before political wrangling. There is still more work to be done, and access to quality healthcare in rural communities will continue to be one of my top priorities. Next Congress, I will work to ensure this law is made permanent so folks living in rural areas continue to have timely access to care and the certainty needed that they can receive these basic health services close to home.”

“Making certain Kansans have access to quality health care remains one of my top priorities in Congress,” Sen. Moran said. “Today, a commonsense bill was signed into law that helps preserve patients’ access to important therapy services in Kansas communities and across the country. Passage of this law is a positive development, and I plan to reintroduce legislation in the new Congress to address this issue on a permanent basis. Thanks to Congresswoman Jenkins for her extraordinary efforts on this legislation in the House of Representatives.”

Examples of direct supervision rules for outpatient therapy services:

– Application of cast to a finger
– Blood transfusions
– Application of a splint to a finger
– Demonstration and/or evaluation of a patient utilizing a nebulizer or metered dose inhaler
– Alcohol and/or substance abuse (other than tobacco) structured assessment and brief intervention (such as advising of health risks and counseling for 15-30 mins)
– Pulmonary rehabilitation, including exercise of one hour per session – up to two sessions per day

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — An SUV driver accused of deliberately running down a Muslim teenager in Kansas City has been charged with murder in a case that’s being investigated by federal authorities to determine whether it was a hate crime.

Thirty-four-year-old Ahmed H. Aden was charged Friday in Jackson County in the crash outside a Somali community center that killed 15-year-old Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein. Prosecutors are requesting a $250,000 bond. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

A probable cause statement says Aden was driving the sport utility vehicle night that hit the teen as he got into a car Thursday evening.

Aden is accused of backing up and running over the teen, whose legs were nearly severed. The teen died in a hospital of his wounds.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The FBI is investigating the death of a Kansas City teenager who died when he was intentionally struck by an SUV outside a Somali community center as a potential hate crime.

Police say the driver rammed the teenager Thursday as he was getting into a car outside the Somali Center of Kansas City, nearly severing his legs. The teen died in a hospital.

FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton said Friday that the agency is working with Kansas City police and “have opened this matter as a federal civil rights investigation as a potential hate crimes violation.”

A 30-year-old suspect was arrested after he tried to flee on foot.

Two Muslim organizations issued separate news releases Friday calling for investigations.

The names of the victim and suspect have not been released.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Muslim groups are asking for federal and state investigations into the death of a teenager who police say was intentionally struck by an SUV driver outside a Kansas City community center.

Police say the driver rammed the teenager Thursday as he was getting into a car outside the Somali Center of Kansas City, nearly severing his legs. The teen died in a hospital.

Police said Friday the death is being investigated as a homicide.

A 30-year-old suspect was arrested after he tried to flee on foot.

The Kansas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and a locally based Heartland Muslim Council issued separate news releases Friday morning calling for investigations.

The identities of the victim and the suspect have not been released.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An attorney for four school districts suing Kansas over education funding says the state Supreme Court’s newest justice should remove himself from the case on appeal.

Attorney John Robb said Friday that Justice Caleb Stegall participated in two days of mediation over the lawsuit in 2013 and represented Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.

Stegall was sworn in as a justice Friday and declined to comment afterward. He is a former chief counsel for the governor.

Four school districts and the parents of more than 30 students filed the lawsuit in 2010. A three-judge Shawnee County District Court panel is considering whether the state is spending enough money on public schools to provide an adequate education for every child.

Attorneys expect an appeal to the Supreme Court regardless.

LENEXA- A Kansas man died in an accident just before 4 a.m. on Friday in Johnson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Mitsubishi passenger car driven by Arnulfo V. Ramirez, 32, Bonner Springs, was westbound on the ramp from Interstate 435 westbound to Kansas 10 westbound in Lenexa.

The driver lost control in the rain. The vehicle spun to the right, left the roadway and struck a bridge pillar.

Ramirez was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to First Call Morgue.
The KHP reported he was properly restrained at the time of the accident.