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<\/p>\nThe arrival of the second Orion European Service Module (ESM) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in October signified the beginning of months of final assembly of the first crewed Orion spacecraft that will fly four people on the Artemis 2 mission. Following the delivery of the ESM from prime contractor Airbus Defence and Space to Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin, the two primary elements of the Artemis 2 Orion Service Module are now being bolted together.<\/p>\n
Lockheed Martin is processing Orion flight hardware for Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 as a part of their Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO) in the Armstrong Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building at KSC. As they process the Artemis 2 Orion Crew and Service Modules to be mated next year, the ATLO team also received the next Crew Module (CM) pressure vessel and is also simultaneously beginning build-up of the Crew Module and Crew Module Adapter (CMA) structures for Artemis 3.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Standalone buildup of Artemis 2 modules<\/p>\n
Following completion of production at their assembly, integration, and testing (AIT) facility in Bremen, Germany, Airbus delivered ESM Flight Model-2 (FM-2) to KSC in mid-October. Alternately referred to as ESM-2, after the module was received in the O&C Building, it was tested following its overseas air transportation to make sure it was ready to be mated with the Crew Module Adapter (CMA) for Artemis 2.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe perform something called the TIC, which is the Transportation and Integrity Check,\u201d Laura Poliah, Orion Lead Test Engineer for NASA, said in November 5 interviews on the floor of the O&C Building. \u201cAfter having traveled all this distance, we check to make sure [that] nothing has changed significantly after that transport and everything is good to go before you put in the CMA.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did things like, we checked the pressures of all the tanks, we checked to make sure the valves were all in the correct states that they were supposed to be in for systems like the prop system, and we checked to make sure, from an electrical perspective, that all the harnessing that is going to be connecting up to the CMA has the right resistance and continuity associated with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we check all those things individually to make sure that when you do that connection there\u2019s not going to be, like, say, electrically a transient spike that harms the CMA from that perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Credit: Philip Sloss for NSF.<\/p>\n
(Photo Caption: The Crew Module Adapter and European Service Module for Artemis 2 are seen on November 5 in the lift station of the Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at KSC. The two elements are being integrated structurally and functionally into the spacecraft\u2019s Service Module.)<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe do all of that beforehand, and once we completed that then we gave the go-ahead to then go mate the CMA,\u201d she added. At the time of the interviews on November 5, the CMA and the ESM had been positioned in the lift station in the O&C, and bolting of the elements was underway.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, we\u2019re doing structural\/physical mate, so that\u2019s bolting all the longeron bolts [around the perimeter],\u201d Amanda Stevenson, NASA\u2019s Assembly Operations Lead for the Artemis 2 Crew Module Adapter, said. \u201cAlso the bulkhead bolts between the CMA and ESM.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere are 192 bolts that have to be installed, and so I believe the bolts are loosely fit in [initially], 120 of them, and they\u2019re just now starting to tighten them and torque them down,\u201d Amy Marasia, NASA\u2019s Branch Manager for Orion Production Operations and Spacecraft Assembly, also noted. <\/p>\n The CMA and ESM are the two major elements of the Orion Service Module; after they are permanently bolted together, the newly integrated Service Module will be moved from the lift station to the O&C cleanroom.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is its next stop,\u201d Marasia said. \u201cAfter the structural mate, it comes into the cleanroom where we then do the welding [of fluid lines between the CMA and ESM].\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSome of them are mechanical fittings, but we basically install the tubing that goes between the CMA propulsion systems and the ESM and also the environmental control and life support systems, [such as] oxygen, nitrogen, water. So all the commodities. We basically have to put jumper tubes and install those.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n