Tag: Orion
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SLS mobile launch platform to go on the move this week
The Space Launch System’s mobile launch platform is pictured with a crawler-transporter during a lift procedure earlier this year. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett The mobile platform intended to carry NASA’s Space Launch System will trek to the mega-rocket’s launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as soon as Thursday, before heading inside the spaceport’s…
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Lockheed Martin readies Orion EM-2 Pressure Vessel for trip to KSC
The crew compartment for NASA’s first crewed Orion spacecraft is headed to its launch site in Florida this week after completion of structural assembly at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans. Late last month Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin completed welding the crew module pressure vessel that will fly on Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2),…
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Digging into the details of Orion’s EM-1 test flight
As NASA continues to analyze and refine the profile for the Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) test flight, more information about the multi-week mission is beginning to be detailed. The Orion spacecraft will fly into orbit around the Moon before returning to Earth in a shakedown mission before the first crew flies in Orion on Exploration Mission-2…
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Digging into the details of Orion’s EM-1 test flight
As NASA continues to analyze and refine the profile for the Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) test flight, more information about the multi-week mission is beginning to be detailed. The Orion spacecraft will fly into orbit around the Moon before returning to Earth in a shakedown mission before the first crew flies in Orion on Exploration Mission-2…
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Airbus performing Orion ESM checkout for trip to U.S. launch site
Airbus Defence and Space is in the home stretch of work to ship the first European Service Module (ESM) to its Florida launch site for integration with the rest of the hardware for NASA’s Orion spacecraft. When fully assembled and tested, Orion will be launched on the Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) test flight to orbit the…
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Mars Sample Return mission gains traction – SLS and Orion had an eye on involvement
The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA have signed a statement of intent to jointly explore various options related to a potential Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission in the next decade. Returning Martian samples to Earth has long been a goal for the world’s spaceflight agencies, with new promotional materials from NASA indicating that the…
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2020 or bust? GAO watchdogs foresee further delays for orbital spaceships
An artist’s conception shows NASA’s Orion capsule in flight. (NASA Illustration) The Government Accountability Office issued a downbeat report on NASA’s major space projects today, saying that cost and schedule performance has deteriorated over the past year. The full extent of the cost issues is unknown, primarily due to uncertainties surrounding the effort to build…
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AA-2 – NASA’s JSC Getting Orion Simulator Ready for Key Test
NASA is getting the hardware ready for an important test next year of the launch abort system (LAS) that Orion spacecraft will use during launch on missions to the Moon in the 2020s. At the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, a crew module simulator is being outfitted with equipment to turn it into…
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NASA’s realigning dual Mobile Launcher plan targets extra SLS Block 1 missions
Space Launch System (SLS) managers are now planning for the utilization of two Mobile Launchers (MLs), allowing for additional use of the rocket on both crewed and cargo-only missions. The first major cargo-only flight is being focused on the Europa Clipper mission now set to ride on a Block 1 SLS, a variant which may…
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NASA courts commercial options for Lunar Landers
As NASA refocuses – once again – on returning to the Lunar surface, the agency has published a Request For Information (RFI) that will be used to gauge interest from the private/commercial space sector in building domestic lunar landers. The request points to an evolution of concept, with small-scale cargo landers being used to prove the…