The Orion crew module for Exploration Flight Test-1
is shown in the Final Assembly and System Testing (FAST) Cell, positioned over
the service module just prior to mating the two sections together. The FAST cell
is where the integrated crew and service modules are put through their final
system tests prior to rolling out of the Operations and Checkout Building at
NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for integration with its rocket.
Technicians are in position to assist with the final alignment steps once the
crew module is nearly in contact with the service module. In December, Orion
will launch 3,600 miles into space in a four-hour flight to test the systems
that will be critical for survival in future human missions to deep
space.
Image Credit: NASA/Rad Sinyak
With just six months until its first trip to space, NASA’s Orion spacecraft
continues taking shape at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Engineers began stacking the crew module on top of the completed service
module Monday, the first step in moving the three primary Orion elements –crew
module, service module and launch abort system – into the correct configuration
for launch.
"Now that we're getting so close to launch, the spacecraft completion work is
visible every day," said Mark Geyer, NASA's Orion Program manager. "Orion's
flight test will provide us with important data that will help us test out
systems and further refine the design so we can safely send humans far into the
solar system to uncover new scientific discoveries on future missions."
With the crew module now in place, the engineers will secure it and make the
necessary power connections between to the service module over the course of the
week. Once the bolts and fluid connector between the modules are in place, the
stacked spacecraft will undergo electrical, avionic and radio frequency
tests.
The modules are being put together in the Final Assembly and System Testing
(FAST) Cell in the Operations and Checkout Facility at Kennedy. Here, the
integrated modules will be put through their final system tests prior to rolling
out of the facility for integration with the United Launch Alliance Delta IV
Heavy rocket that will send it on its misión.
Orion is being prepared for its first launch later this year, an uncrewed
flight that will take it 3,600 miles above Earth, in a 4.5 hour mission to test
the systems critical for future human missions to deep space. After two orbits,
Orion will reenter Earth’s atmosphere at almost 20,000 miles per hour before its
parachute system deploys to slow the spacecraft for a splashdown in the Pacific
Ocean.
Orion's flight test also will provide important data for the agency’s Space
Launch System (SLS) rocket and ocean recovery of Orion. Engineers at NASA’s
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, have built an advanced
adapter to connect Orion to the Delta IV Heavy rocket that will launch the
spacecraft during the December test. The adapter also will be used during future
SLS missions. NASA’s Ground Systems Development and Operations Program, based at
Kennedy, will recover the Orion crew module with the U.S. Navy after its
splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
For more information on Orion, visit:
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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