Grats to NASA on a very successful test of the Orion crew capsule’s launch abort system.  Unfortunately the future of the Orion crew capsule, part of NASA’s Constellation program (I mentioned previously) that Obama scrapped earlier this year, is still up in the air.  The U.S. has never had to use a launch abort system for its astronauts so far, but the Russians have had to twice.  Even though the administration hasn’t got its act together in Washington with regards to space funding and direction, it’s good to see NASA pushing forward on future astronaut safety.