Tag: Orion
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ASAP urges NASA to build cross-program computer test capability for Artemis
The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) expressed its concern about the integrated computer testing capabilities across the three separate programs under the Exploration Systems Development (ESD) division of NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. The Exploration Ground Systems (EGS), Orion, and Space Launch System (SLS) programs under ESD are working together to accomplish upcoming…
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EGS Integration Console in the middle of Artemis 1 countdown deliberations
The NASA and Jacobs engineers staffing the Integration Console will be literally and figuratively in the center of the final discussions to clear the Orion/Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle for its inaugural Artemis 1 launch. Sitting in the middle of the main Firing Room at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) Launch…
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NASA studying practice rendezvous options for Artemis 2 Orion
NASA is studying the addition of an Orion rendezvous demonstration to the Artemis 2 test flight to reduce overall mission risks to the subsequent Artemis 3 lunar landing from first-time operations. The Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) is working with its Artemis Programs to evaluate some of the trade-offs from a range of…
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SLS booster segments arrive in Florida, but stacking on hold until core stage test
The 10 booster segments for the first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System travel across a bridge between Titusville, Florida, and the Kennedy Space Center on Monday, June 15. Credit: Northrop Grumman Fueled segments of the solid rocket boosters that will lift off on the first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System have arrived at…
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New NASA spaceflight chief makes no guarantees about 2024 moon landing goal
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Kathy Lueders was named associate administrator of NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate earlier this month. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett Kathy Lueders, NASA’s newly appointed head of human spaceflight operations, said Thursday that without a crystal ball, she could not give a yes-or-no answer when asked whether she…
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Stennis returning as battle to protect SLS maiden launch in 2021 restarts
Hands-on operations with the Space Launch System (SLS) resumed this week, following a lengthy standdown due to the restrictions relating to COVID-19. This included a return to Green Run preparations at the Stennis Space Center, with “limited crews” preparing the Artemis-1 core stage on the B-2 test stand for what will be one of the…
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From Shuttle Sadness to Dragon Delight – USA prepares to regain domestic crew launch capability
The gap in US domestic crew launch capability is coming to an end as soon as next month, concluding a convoluted and painful path that ultimately began when Columbia was lost during STS-107. The last time American astronauts launched from US soil was in 2011 with Shuttle Atlantis during STS-135. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is set…
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Lockheed Martin continues NASA Orion KSC processing for Artemis 1
The Orion spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis 1 mission is set up back at home in its final assembly cell at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida following its last major pre-launch development test. The lunar-rated spaceship spent just shy of four months at NASA’s Plum Brook Station facility in Ohio undergoing thermal vacuum and…
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Artemis 1 Orion returns to KSC after Plum Brook testing
Riding aboard NASA’s Super Guppy aircraft, the Orion spacecraft that will fly the Artemis 1 lunar orbit mission returned home to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on March 25 after four months of development testing in Ohio. The mated Crew Service Module (CSM) combo spent weeks in the thermal vacuum chamber of the…
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NASA decides against using Gateway for 2024 lunar landing
As NASA organizes a push to return a human presence to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo era, the agency has made critical changes to the plan that would enable a crewed lunar landing to occur no later than 2024. One of these modifications involved the Lunar Gateway, a modular space station…