Hi My Friends: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., More than 450 guests at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida welcomed
the arrival of the agency's first space-bound Orion spacecraft Monday,
marking a major milestone in the construction of the vehicle that will
carry astronauts farther into space than ever before.
NASA Unveils Orion During Ceremony:
The Orion
capsule that will make the first flight test into space was celebrated
Monday morning as the cornerstone of a new era of exploration for
America's space program.
The spacecraft's aluminum-alloy crew pressure module arrived at NASA's
Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, June 29, where it will be
built up into a fully functioning spacecraft ahead of a test flight
slated for 2014.
"This starts a new, exciting chapter in this nation's great space
exploration story," said Lori Garver, NASA deputy administrator. "Today
we are lifting our spirits to new heights."
Orion will be the most advanced spacecraft ever designed. It will
provide emergency abort capability, sustain astronauts during space
travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space.
The 2014 uncrewed flight, called Exploration Flight Test-1 or EFT-1,
will be loaded with a wide variety of instruments to evaluate how the
spacecraft behaves during launch, in space and the through the searing
heat of reentry.
Later Orion spacecraft will take astronauts on missions to destinations far beyond Earth, such as to an asteroid and Mars.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to Mars," proclaimed U.S. Sen. Bill
Nelson, D-Fla., who joined Garver and other officials to welcome the
Orion spacecraft. "We know the Orion capsule is a critical part of the
system that's going to take us there."
Designed with astronauts in mind, Orion will take crews beyond low-Earth
orbit for the first time since 1972, when Apollo 17 completed the last
moon landing. The Space Launch System, or SLS -- a gigantic rocket akin
to the Saturn V that launched the Apollo spacecraft -- is being
developed to launch future Orion missions to deep space. The first
launch of the SLS, with Orion atop, is scheduled for 2017.
Astronaut Rex Walheim, who flew on the final space shuttle mission and
has had a leading role in the development of Orion, said the capsule can
be the principal spacecraft for 30 years of human exploration of the
solar system.
"It's the first in a line of vehicles that can take us where we've never
gone before," Walheim said. "It'll be a building block approach, we'll
have to have a lander and a habitation module, but we can get there."
Although the design is reminiscent of the landmark Apollo capsule that
took men to the moon, the interior of the spacecraft if significantly
more advanced. Its guidance, navigation and life support equipment have
seen significant improvements in size and capabilities.
"The systems on this spacecraft, it's bigger than Apollo and it has to
stay in space longer than Apollo, so it has to be better than Apollo,"
said Bob Cabana, director of Kennedy and a former shuttle commander.
For now, the focus for NASA and Lockheed Martin, the spacecraft's
builder, is on preparing this capsule for space in 2014. During the
EFT-1 mission, a Delta IV-Heavy rocket from United Launch Alliance will
lift the spacecraft into orbit. Its second stage will remain attached to
the capsule and will be fired to raise the Orion's orbit to 3,600
miles, about 15 times higher than the International Space Station. The
mission will last only a few hours, long enough to make two orbits
before being sent plunging back into the atmosphere to test it at
deep-space reentry speeds.
Assembly at Kennedy will take place in the high bay of the Operations
and Checkout Building, or O&C. The O&C was refurbished
extensively in 2006 and has been outfitted with large fixtures and tools
to turn the aluminum shell of Orion into a functioning spacecraft
complete with avionics, instrumentation and heat shield.
The space-bound Orion was welded at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in
New Orleans, in the same factory that built the external tanks for space
shuttle missions.
NASA's Ground Services Development and Operations Program, or GSDO,
oversaw development of the mobile launcher that will provide a launch
pad for the SLS and Orion missions. The program also refurbished Launch
Pad 39B, designing a new pad structure emphasizing flexibility.
"A vehicle can come in any shape and any size and be able to launch from
this pad," said Pepper Phillips, manager of the GSDO program.
The Orion program, based at Johnson Space Center in Houston, calls on
multiple NASA centers to team up for the missions including EFT-1.
"Ultimately, we're going to fly as one big team," said Dave Beaman,
Space Launch System spacecraft and payload integration manager based at
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "The fact that we're
two separate programs, and having the GSDO program here at Kennedy, it
gets some early coordination going and gives a chance to iron out some
wrinkles."
Although EFT-1 will be launched aboard a Delta IV-Heavy rocket, it will
use a stage adapter design that also will connect the Orion to the SLS.
"You want to make a part that can be designed for the Orion flight, as
well as the SLS flights so you only have to design it once," Beaman
said. "We'll get flight data on the performance, which really helps."
The spacecraft arrived at Kennedy nearly 50 years to the day that the
center was born. Both occasions give NASA a great chance to set future
milestones that will be as celebrated as those already achieved, Garver
said.
"It's a great day and great way to celebrate 50 years of success and talk about 50 years in the future," Garver said.
Steven Siceloff, Kennedy Space Center
NASA'S Orion Arrives At Kennedy, Work Underway For First Launch
CAPE
CANAVERAL, Fla. -- More than 450 guests at NASA's Kennedy Space Center
in Florida welcomed the arrival of the agency's first space-bound Orion
spacecraft Monday, marking a major milestone in the construction of the
vehicle that will carry astronauts farther into space than ever before.
"Orion's arrival at Kennedy is an important step in meeting the
president's goal to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars in
the 2030s," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said. "As NASA
acquires services for delivery of cargo and crew to the International
Space Station and other low-Earth destinations from private companies,
NASA can concentrate its efforts on building America's next generation
space exploration system to reach destinations for discovery in deep
space. Delivery of the first space-bound Orion, coupled with recent
successes in commercial spaceflight, is proof this national strategy is
working."
Orion will be the most advanced spacecraft ever
designed. It will provide emergency abort capability, sustain astronauts
during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space.
The space-bound Orion will launch on Exploration Flight Test-1, an
uncrewed mission planned for 2014. The spacecraft will travel 3,600
miles above the Earth's surface, 15 times farther than the International
Space Station's orbital position. This is farther than any spacecraft
designed to carry humans t has gone in more than 40 years. The primary
flight objective is to understand Orion's heat shield performance at
speeds generated during a return from deep space.
In advance
of the 2014 launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., a
400-person Orion production team at Kennedy will apply heat shielding
thermal protection systems, avionics and other subsystems to the
spacecraft. Work also is underway by the Ground Systems Development and
Operations team at Kennedy to modify and refurbish facilities used
throughout the history of American spaceflight in preparation for the
next generation of rockets and spacecraft. This includes the Vehicle
Assembly Building, Launch Control Center, launch pad, mobile launcher
and crawler-transporter.
"Work is under way on America's next
great spacecraft that will surpass the boundaries within which humanity
has been held," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for
the Human Exploration Operations Mission Directorate at NASA
Headquarters in Washington. "In a facility that once processed cargo for
space shuttles and various components for the International Space
Station, hundreds of people at Kennedy are coupling advanced hardware
assembly systems with a new human-rated spacecraft designed for deep
space travel.. It is a fitting testament to the American work force at
Kennedy that has enabled the exploration of space for 50 years is again
working on hardware that will extend human presence throughout the solar
system."
In 2017, Orion will be launched by NASA's Space
Launch System (SLS), a heavy-lift rocket that will provide an entirely
new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Designed to
be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS
will enable new missions of exploration and expand human presence across
the solar system.
Across the country, progress is being made
on multiple components and capabilities for Orion and SLS. Orion has
successfully completed numerous splashdown tests from a variety of
angles and speeds, examining how the spacecraft will come to a rest on
the ocean at the conclusion of deep space missions. NASA also has
conducted a series of parachute tests high above the Arizona desert,
demonstrating how Orion will behave under its giant parachute canopy.
Software tests have been run between Mission Control Houston and an
Orion mockup at Lockheed Martin's Exploration Development Laboratory,
allowing flight controllers to learn how the spacecraft's onboard
computers operate. Work also continues to build and fine-tune Orion's
launch abort system. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for Orion.
The J-2X upper-stage rocket engine, developed by Pratt & Whitney
Rocketdyne for the future two-stage SLS, is being tested at Stennis
Space Center in Mississippi. The prime contractor for the five-segment
solid rocket boosters, ATK, has begun processing its first SLS hardware
components in preparation for an initial qualification test in 2013. The
SLS core stage, which will be designed and manufactured by Boeing, has
just passed a major technical review and is moving from concept to early
design. Boeing has already delivered test bed flight computers to the
program and flight software development is underway.
The
Orion crew module was built at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New
Orleans. NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston manages the Orion
Program. SLS is managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala. NASA's Ground Systems Development and Operations
Program is managed by Kennedy.
For more information about the Orion Program, visit:
For more information on the Space Launch System, visit:
For more information about the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program at Kennedy, visit:
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
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Image
above: Bob Cabana, director of the Kennedy Space Center, speaks to
members of the news media standing in front of the Orion spacecraft
being prepared for Exploration Flight Test-1 in 2014. Also participating
in the briefing are, from the left, Scott Colloredo, chief architect
for the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program, Keith Hefner,
Space Launch System program planning and control manager, Mark Geyer,
Orion program manager, and Dan Dumbacher, deputy associate administrator
for Exploration Systems Development. Photo Credit: NASA
