NASA’s Orion spacecraft is set to roll out of the Launch Abort System Facility (LASF) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to its launch pad at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 37 on Monday Nov. 10, in preparation for liftoff next month on its first space flight.
At 4:30 p.m. EST, NASA Television will air a news briefing live from the LASF before Orion’s move. Participating will be Robert Cabana, Kennedy Space Center director; Ellen Ochoa, Johnson Space Center director; Mark Geyer, Orion Program manager; and Mike Hawes, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company director of Human Space Flight Programs.
The spacecraft will start its journey to the launch pad at 8 p.m. The rollout will not be carried live on NASA TV, but highlights of the move will air on NASA TV’s Video File segments and the agency’s website starting Tuesday morning, Nov. 11. The spacecraft is expected to reach Space Launch Complex 37 at about 2 a.m., Tuesday.
I hope NASA will look after the construction plans of its new “toy” better than those of Saturn V. I once read, many years ago, that when the Space Shuttle design was being laid out some senior engineers couldn’t find the (full set of) original drawings of the Saturn V although these plans once weighed more than Saturn V (fueled and all) itself did. I understand that paper archiving is a nuisance, but with digitized CAD/CAM files you should be able to preserve this information and if only for future space historians.