Max Launch Abort System
The Max Launch Abort System (MLAS) was a proposed alternative to the Maxime Faget-invented "tractor" launch escape system (LES) that was planned for use by NASA for its Orion spacecraft in the event an Ares I malfunction during launch required an immediate abort.

Designed by NASA engineers and reported on the website NASASpaceFlight.com on December 6, 2007, the proposed MLAS used four existing Huntsville-built Thiokol solid-rocket motors (built in 1988) placed at 90° intervals within the Orion's bullet-shaped fairing. The fairing was originally designed to protect the Orion spacecraft from aerodynamic stresses during launch, and to provide an interface between the spacecraft's crew module with the LES.

The MLAS was designed with the aim of reducing the height of the Orion/Ares I stack while also reducing weight and center-of-gravity issues of a traditional LES. The bullet-shaped MLAS was also expected to provide better aerodynamic qualities during the first two minutes of flight, reducing stresses when the vehicle encounters the "max Q" region of hypersonic flight. The MLAS was also expected to simplify production, as existing hardware would be employed.

There are several drawbacks to MLAS. First, the bullet-shaped protective cover would have to be modified and reinforced to allow for the use of the solid-rocket motors, something not needed with the LES, which bolts on top of the LIDS docking ring assembly. Second, the necessity to fire multiple motors (LES uses one motor and multiple nozzles) simultaneously for an abort decreases the theoretical reliability of the launch abort system by introducing more failure modes.

Like the existing LES, the MLAS would provide protection to the Orion spacecraft crew during the first minutes of flight, with the MLAS being jettisoned, along with the service module's fairing panels, after the solid-rocket first stage was jettisoned. If implemented, the Orion/Ares I stack would have resembled the towerless Gemini-Titan stack used between 1965–1966, in which ejection seats were used as the primary form of escape for the astronauts who flew on the ten Gemini missions.

The MLAS concept was dropped with the transformation of the Crew Exploration Vehicle into the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, and the switch of the launch vehicle from Ares I (with its perennial underperformance) to the Delta IV Heavy or Space Launch System.
Q923972
Maxime Faget
PER
Q907773
launch escape system
Concept
Q211727
Orion
MISC
Q392348
Ares I
MISC
Q6952454
NASASpaceFlight.com
MEDIA
Q79860
Huntsville
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Q2357348
Thiokol
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fairing
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Q1913293
max Q
UNK
Q1872552
LIDS
UNK
Q214996
Gemini
MISC
Q1187238
Titan
MISC
Q623544
ejection seat
Concept
Q214996
Gemini
MISC
Q969345
Crew Exploration Vehicle
MISC
Q211727
Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle
MISC
Q249492
Delta IV Heavy
Concept
Q64127
Space Launch System
MISC
Q6794960
Max Launch Abort System
MISC
2007-12-06T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
December 6, 2007
DATE
1988-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1988
DATE
1965-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1965
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90
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+1966^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
1966
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instance of
used by
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replaces