NASA - NASA Schedules Media Events and Coverage for New Solar Mission Launch

Fit Check Sets Stage for Orion Recovery Test

Image Above: The boilerplate handling fixture bumper assembly for Orion recovery tests was designed and manufactured at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Image Credit: 

NASA/Jeremy Parr

Image Above: The boilerplate test article was modified at Langley Research Center in Virginia for Orion recovery testing.

Image Credit: 

NASA/Jim Grossmann

By Linda Herridge,
NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

Engineers and technicians at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Langley Research Center in Virginia and Lockheed Martin Space Operations in Denver, Colo., prepared unique hardware that was used in a fit check June 25-28 of equipment that will be used to recover Orion upon splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The recovery operations are led by the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program at Kennedy.  

After traveling 3,600 miles above the Earth for its Exploration Flight Test-1 mission in September 2014, Orion will splash down for a landing in the Pacific Ocean, where it will be recovered with the help of the United States Navy. A test of the recovery equipment and procedures will take place in August at the Naval Station Norfolk port facility in Norfolk, Va. To be ready for that test, a fit check of the hardware was conducted at the “Trim Pad” near Langley.

For the first time, the crew module recovery cradle designed by Lockheed Martin, the boilerplate handling fixture bumper assembly designed by Kennedy, and the Orion boilerplate test article (BTA) – a life-size test version of the spacecraft designed and built by Langley – was assembled and tested in one place.

The BTA originally was used for water impact testing at Langley’s hydro impact basin for the Orion Structural Passive Landing Attenuation for Survivability of Human-crew (SPLASH) project. Langley redesigned, analyzed, and modified the BTA to simulate the EFT-1 crew module’s mass properties and improve its water resistance for recovery operations.    

“One of the goals of this fit check was to practice putting together and taking apart the recovery hardware,” said Mike Generale, Orion recovery operations manager and recovery test director at Kennedy. “It’s a chance to learn how to operate the newly developed hardware and confirm that it is compatible.”

The “Trim Pad” is a large area of concrete near the hangar where the hardware was stored for the fit check. Prior to checkout, the team painted the outline of a ship’s well deck onto the concrete in order to confirm that the configuration of the recovery hardware will fit.

The one-of-a-kind handling fixture assembly was developed at Kennedy’s Prototype Laboratory and manufactured at the center’s Launch Equipment Test Facility by several Engineering Services contractors. It is the first piece of landing and recovery hardware to be completed and delivered to Langley in May.

Jeremy Parr, a mechanical design engineer in the center’s Prototype Laboratory, led the efforts to create the handling fixture using computer-aided design programs.

“We started with an initial design using computer modeling,” Parr said. “As the requirements were refined, we kept working towards a final design. The design portion took about one month to achieve.”

Essentially, the handling fixture is a steel beam frame about 17 feet wide and 19 feet long. The fixture has a bolt-on bumper assembly with cushions, or bumpers, that float up and down on guide rails. The assembly frame and bumper will be used to guide the Orion test article into the proper orientation over the handling fixture.

“The handling fixture allows NASA to move the test article into and out of the Navy recovery ship,” Generale said. “It also will serve as a fixture for storing the test article securely on board the recovery ship.”

The crew module recovery cradle then will be used to secure the Orion crew module in the recovery ship and to move it out of the ship after returning to port.

The fit check also gave the team the opportunity to see how NASA procedures and hardware mesh with procedures and hardware developed by the Navy.

 “The collaboration between the Navy and NASA during the fit check ensured operational success and will benefit the Orion EFT-1 mission,” said Lisa Hawks, SPLASH operations and integration manager."

NASA Schedules Media Events and Coverage for New Solar Mission Launch

WASHINGTON - NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) mission is scheduled to launch at 7:27 p.m. PDT (10:27 p.m. EDT) Wednesday, June 26, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Launch on an Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus XL rocket is targeted for the middle of a five-minute launch window. Live NASA Television coverage of the launch begins at 6 p.m. PDT (9 p.m. EDT). NASA TV also will air an IRIS prelaunch news conference and science briefing beginning at noon PDT (3 p.m. EDT) on Tuesday, June 25.

IRIS is a NASA Small Explorer Mission to observe how solar material moves, gathers energy and heats up as it travels through a little-understood region in the sun's lower atmosphere. This interface region between the sun's photosphere and corona powers its dynamic million-degree atmosphere and drives the solar wind.

The drop of the air-launched Pegasus from Orbital's L-1011 carrier aircraft will occur over the Pacific Ocean at an altitude of 39,000 feet, about 100 miles northwest of Vandenberg off the central coast of California, south of Big Sur.

The IRIS News Center at Kennedy's Vandenberg Resident Office will be staffed starting Monday, June 24 and may be reached between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. at 805-605-3051.

For complete details on media registration, media events, and live launch coverage on NASA Television, visit:
 

http://go.nasa.gov/13L6djG

NASA also will host a Google+ Hangout at 1:30 p.m. EDT June 25, on the IRIS mission. Social media followers may submit questions on Twitter and Google+ in advance and during the event using the hashtag #askNASA.

Before the hangout begins, NASA will open a thread on its Facebook page where questions may be posted. The hangout can be viewed live on NASA's Google+ page, the NASA Television YouTube channel or NASA TV. For more information and to join the hangout, visit:
 

http://go.nasa.gov/17039WY

Extensive prelaunch and launch day coverage of the IRIS spacecraft will be available on NASA's home page at:
 

http://www.nasa.gov

To view the IRIS webcast and launch blog, and learn more about the mission, visit:
 

http://www.nasa.gov/iris

 

NASA

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

ayabaca@gmail.com

ayabaca@hotmail.com

ayabaca@yahoo.com 

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