At three metres tall, Nasa’s Orion capsule is roomier than Apollo’s capsule and seats four astronauts instead of three, but for Monday’s test flight it will have a payload ranging from a mannequin named Helga to bits of Apollo 11’s engine and the odd stuffed toy.
For the flight, a full-sized dummy in an orange flight suit will occupy the commander’s seat, rigged with vibration and acceleration sensors. The “commander” was named Moonikin Campos in a public contest, in honour of Arturo Campos, a Nasa engineer who helped save Apollo 13 from disaster by working out how to jury-rig its partly crippled electrical system to bring the astronauts home.
