00:00Before we talk about the launch towers and ground facilities, there is still an extremely important
00:04piece of hardware missing. The launch escape tower. Officially, the launch escape system or LES.
00:11That is this pointed tower right at the top of Orion. Its only job, if something goes wrong
00:17during launch, it pulls the capsule away from the rocket in fractions of a second using an
00:21extremely powerful solid rocket motor. Over 180 tons. Activation time. Milliseconds. A classic
00:32better safe than sorry system. Interesting detail. The tower is jettisoned after the most dangerous
00:37phase of the launch and burns up in the atmosphere. So it only stays attached for the first few minutes.
