Tag: EM-1
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Concerning Orion – Amid SLS push, Orion requires Life Support testing
While NASA pushes it Space Launch System (SLS) to make a mid-2020 debut, Orion also needs to find solutions to both match the realigned targets and achieve key objectives before the second flight with astronauts onboard. Most notably, the Orion Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) is set to make its full debut on the…
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Examining NASA’s challenge to SLS as ‘Moon, soon’ becomes the latest bold goal
Vice President Mike Pence has instructed NASA to land Americans on the Moon within the next five years. That was the headline from the latest National Space Council meeting this week. These words will require action and an influx of additional funding to stand a chance of becoming a reality. However, an overriding abstract behind…
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Boeing reaches long awaited SLS engine section milestone as NASA makes EM-1 2020 schedule push
Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage prime contractor Boeing reached a long-awaited milestone this week with completion of standalone work on the engine section for the first vehicle. The most complex section of NASA’s new rocket stage is well behind more than one schedule revision, and because it is the critical path in the schedule…
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Administration proposes the end of EUS while Administrator considers full Exploration manifest rewrite
Alongside last week’s Trump Administration budget proposal to cancel future Space Launch System (SLS) upgrades, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced additional changes are being considered which would overhaul the early manifest of Exploration flights. The Administration’s new budget proposes defunding the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) and related projects beginning with Fiscal Year 2020 that starts…
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NASA considers shifting a key test flight beyond the moon to commercial rockets
An artist’s conception shows NASA’s Orion deep-space crew capsule with its European Service Module placed beneath it and an upper stage powering it out of Earth orbit. (NASA Illustration) NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told a Senate hearing today that his agency is looking into an option to double up commercial launch vehicles in order to…
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Lockheed Martin getting NASA’s EM-1 Orion modules ready for final mate
The two modules that will fly NASA’s first solo Orion flight into lunar orbit and back are going through standalone testing in the lead up to becoming a mated spacecraft. The Crew and Service Modules for the Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) flight are being assembled and tested by Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin in the Operations…
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Boeing starts final assembly for NASA’s first SLS Core Stage, work picks up for the second
Over the past month Boeing assembled the top half of the first Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage in a vertical stacking cell at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans. The intertank, liquid oxygen (LOX) tank, and forward skirt were bolted together as the major part of the so-called “forward join” of the…
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Following ESM arrival at KSC, Orion kicks off final assembly for EM-1
The 404-day clock to connect, checkout, and test the first integrated Orion spacecraft for its flight to the Moon started in early November with the arrival of the European Service Module (ESM) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. All of the major Orion hardware for Exploration Mission-1 is in the Operations and Checkout…
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EGS Plan for the Pad: processing EM-1 hardware for launch
The first integrated Orion and Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle that will launch Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) will be put through a series of tests at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) by NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) processing teams beyond typical launch processing checkouts. Structural testing will be performed as major EM-1 hardware are joined for…
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Orion test article completes key White Sands firings for ESM shipment
Testing of the Propulsion Qualification Module (PQM) for NASA’s Orion spacecraft resumed at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico in mid-October. The test team at White Sands conducted two hot-fire tests critical to shipping the first European Service Module (ESM) from its Bremen, Germany, production site to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in…