Mountain Home native plays key role in Orion spacecraft launch

The first launch of the Orion spacecraft, on Dec. 5, will eventually return the United States to manned spaceflight. Richard Koelsch, a 1998 Mountain Home High School graduate, was a member of the mission control team.

Richard Koelsch, a 1998 graduate of Mountain Home High School, was part of the mission operations team that made history on Dec. 5 with the successful launch of the new Orion spacecraft atop a Delta IV rocket from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Koelsch was co-leading the Landing and Recovery Systems engineering support console from the Engineering Support Room at the Kennedy Space Center.

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Richard Koelsch was present during the rollout of the Orion spacecraft (background) prior to launch.