A “space corridor,” as the Columbus Dispatch recently referred to a planned route between Mansfield and Sandusky, will spring into reality later this year.
Highway Patrol troopers, flaggers, and a small flotilla of other vehicles will make their way along the roads of northern Ohio accompanying some very precious cargo.
In a Sunday story entitled, “How 22 foot space capsule Orion will go from Florida to northern Ohio,” the Dispatch suggested that the 43 mile trip from Mansfield Lahm, where the space capsule will arrive, to Sandusky will potentially clog traffic as the 22 foot by 20 foot Orion moves along at 25 miles per hour.
The latest estimate for when this will take place is sometime in November.
Mansfield is no stranger to such arrivals and departures, having had similar space vehicles make the same path from Lahm to Plum Brook Station in Sandusky.
The uncrewed Orion Multi-Purupose Crew Vehicle is scheduled to be launched next June from the Kennedy Space Center as a part of the Artemis 1 project. The goal of the flight is a six day moon orbit. If successful, it is planned to be followed by Artemis 2, which will be a crewed space flight.
More information on the Orion mission and spacecraft can be read here.
Photo: Public Domain
