Month: February 2016

Processing Begins on Orion Crew Module at Kennedy Space Center for NASA’s Exploration Mission-1

The Orion crew module pressure vessel is secured on a birdcage test stand in the Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center.
The Orion crew module pressure vessel is secured on a test stand called the birdcage inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky

The Orion crew module pressure vessel for NASA’s Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) has been secured in an upgraded version of a test stand called the birdcage in the high bay inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The pressure vessel is the underlying structure of the Orion crew module. It arrived at Kennedy on Feb. 1 aboard NASA’s Super Guppy aircraft at the Shuttle Landing Facility operated by Space Florida at Kennedy. It was offloaded and transported to the O&C.

In the high bay, NASA and Orion manufacturer Lockheed Martin will prepare the vehicle for its mission. Over the next 18 months, more than 100,000 components will arrive at Kennedy and be integrated with the spacecraft by the team. It will be outfitted with its systems and subsystems necessary for flight, including its heat-shielding thermal protection system.

The Orion spacecraft will launch aboard NASA’s Space Launch System rocket on EM-1, a test flight that will take it thousands of miles beyond the moon over the course of about a three-week mission.

For more information on EM-1, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/1SD5oVk.

Orion Crew module for Exploration Mission-1 Arrives at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center

NASA's Super Guppy aircraft arrives at Kennedy Space Center.
NASA’s Super Guppy aircraft, carrying the Orion crew module pressure vessel for NASA’s Exploration Mission-1, arrived at the Shuttle Landing Facility operated by Space Florida at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo credit: NASA/Brittney Mostert

The Orion crew module pressure vessel for NASA’s Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) arrived today at the Shuttle Landing Facility operated by Space Florida at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Arrival of the module marks an important milestone toward the agency’s journey to Mars.

The crew module arrived aboard the agency’s Super Guppy aircraft from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Welding work on the pressure vessel, which is the underlying structure of the crew module, was completed at Michoud.

The crew module was offloaded from the Super Guppy and readied for transport to the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building high bay for processing. In the high bay, NASA and Orion manufacturer Lockheed Martin will outfit the crew module with its systems and subsystems necessary for flight, including its heat-shielding thermal protection system.

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket will be the largest rocket ever built. It will carry the Orion spacecraft on EM-1, a test flight scheduled for 2018. During EM-1, Orion will travel thousands of miles beyond the moon over the course of a three-week mission.

Veteran Shuttle Controller to Helm SLS/Orion Launches

Charlie Blackwell-ThompsonCharlie Blackwell-Thompson will be the first woman to oversee a NASA liftoff and launch team when the EM-1 mission launches in 2018 to send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the moon on the strength of the Space Launch System rocket. Read Blackwell-Thompson’s perspective on the work already under way to prep the launch team for the historic day at http://go.nasa.gov/1Txf5p9