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NASA, Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin, and ESM prime contractor Airbus Defence and Space, are nearing the phase of preparations with the major elements of the spacecraft, the CM, the ESM, and the Crew Module Adapter (CMA), mated together. The CMA will first be mated to the ESM, forming most of the overall Service Module (SM), followed by the CM being mated to the SM.<\/p>\n
Both the ESM and CM are getting close, but not there yet. \u201cThe crew module and ESA (European Space Agency) service module I would say are greater than ninety-six percent assembled,\u201d Kirasich said during a short break in NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine\u2019s tour of the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) on August 13. \u201cThe service module has about three or four components yet to be installed and we\u2019re working a valve issue on the service module.\u201d<\/p>\n
The critical path item driving the EM-1 schedule for Orion is still the first ESM, Flight Model-1 (FM-1); Airbus is working through functional testing of its standalone systems at its Assembly, Integration, and Testing (AIT) facility in Bremen, Germany, along with final pre-ship installations.<\/p>\n
Space Shuttle
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Recently, a nozzle was temporarily installed on the Orbital Maneuvering System-E (OMS-E) main engine at Bremen as a part of functional testing of the Thrust Vector Control (TVC) system.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Dic_Y9EW0AAQq0Y.80pct.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA nozzle attached to the OMS-E main engine is swiveled around the base of the first flight ESM during recent TVC functional testing at the AIT Airbus facility in Bremen. Three of the four sets of Auxiliary engines surrounding the main engine can be seen here, protected by ground covers. Credit: Airbus Defence and Space.<\/p>\n
\u201cNotwithstanding the valve issue, to get through those last three or four installations we\u2019d be shipping about September 21st,\u201d Kirasich noted. \u201cWe\u2019re working feverishly on how do we correct the valve problem, and that could take a day, it could take a week, [or] it might take a little longer. So the valve problem is our toughest problem there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The valve issue was discovered during recent pre-test checkouts of the ESM Propulsion Qualification Module (PQM). \u201cThe valves are in the PQM test article and when we were acceptance testing the upgraded PQM was where we first identified the issue,\u201d Kirasich explained. \u201cAnd then we validated it\u2019s on the flight hardware, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Mr. Kirasich noted, the schedule impact to the ESM FM-1 ship date is still to be determined.<\/p>\n
Work in the Operations and Checkout Building at KSC by Lockheed Martin on the CM for EM-1 recently passed a major milestone with installation of the heatshield in late July. Kirasich said that there\u2019s still some work remaining before the CM is ready to mate. \u201cThe crew module is the same thing, it\u2019s greater than ninety-six percent done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/43353209254_9673a6fa0a_o.60pct.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOrion EM-1 crew module during heatshield installation activities at KSC in late July. Credit: NASA\/Kim Shiflett.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the crew module, really [what\u2019s left is] the side hatch, which we weren\u2019t planning to fly on EM-1. Initially, we were going to do it on EM-2 for the first time, but we had a little extra money. We shook out the sofa cushions a few years ago and it\u2019s been on a fast track and because we started it late it\u2019s been behind. So it will be our last component that shows up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Technicians are also still checking out CM systems. \u201cWe\u2019re doing qualification of our components, our avionics boxes, after the flight components were installed,\u201d Kirasich explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the components are passing qual but [with] a couple of them we identified some issues from qual so we had to pull those boxes, send them back to the factory for refurb, and we\u2019ll get them back in the ensuing couple of months.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CM currently has a little bit more room in its schedule to handle this. \u201cThe service module arrives and then it has about two months of work with the crew module adapter \u2014 to integrate it, test it \u2014 and then we mate with the crew module,\u201d Kirasich noted. \u201cSo the crew module still even with these boxes I\u2019m telling you about has got a couple of months of margin.\u201d<\/p>\n
The third major element, the CMA, is the least complex and it has already completed testing. \u201cIt\u2019s ready and its avionics boxes are good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
PQM testing scheduled to resume in mid-September<\/p>\n
While the flight hardware continues to be processed for mating, Orion still has major parts of its Design, Development, Testing and Evaluation (DDT&E) to complete in parallel with work to transition to more of a \u201cproduction and operations\u201d phase in flights beyond EM-2.<\/p>\n
The structural test articles (STA) currently at Lockheed Martin are undergoing a series of tests in the different combinations they will see during flight. Those tests will continue into 2019.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/43302115224_b811efdd02_o.60pct.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe full launch stack of structural test article (STA) elements for Orion in a test facility at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Colorado. Most of the crew module and service module are covered by the Launch Abort System (LAS) hardware and other panels jettisoned during ascent. Credit: Lockheed Martin\/Patrick Corkery.<\/p>\n
At the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, the PQM is being checked out to resume testing next month. \u201cWe\u2019re targeting September 12th,\u201d Kirasich said. \u201cWe had to make about three major changes and a half dozen minor changes to the test article to make sure we don\u2019t have that phenomenon again.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the PQM\u2019s RCS thrusters had a failure during an initial round of \u201cblowdown\u201d testing in August of last year. \u201cWe did blowdown testing because we didn\u2019t have our pressure controller that regulates the pressures to the gas tanks,\u201d Kirasich explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would pressurize the tanks and then we would burn, but you can\u2019t burn very long that way. So we got the pressure controllers installed now [and] we\u2019re about one month out.\u201d<\/p>\n
EM-3 hardware ordered<\/p>\n
Kirasich was at MAF in New Orleans as a part of Administrator Bridenstine\u2019s visit, which coincided with the completion of the pressure vessel for the EM-2 CM. Mr. Bridenstine was sworn in as NASA Administrator in late April and is currently making time to tour all of NASA\u2019s centers and facilities.<\/p>\n
Several of the items that Lockheed Martin processes at MAF were on display for the Administrator and for media observing the tour. The spacecraft adapter cone, a Spacecraft Adapter Jettisoned (SAJ) panel and a LAS ogive panel for EM-1 surrounded the EM-2 pressure vessel.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/29308508517_b6b4a80041_o.35pct.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOrion EM-2 crew module pressure vessel arrives at KSC in shipping container on August 24. Credit: NASA\/Christopher Swanson.<\/p>\n
In the back of the area, the primary Launch Abort System (LAS) structure for the Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2) was also visible as it is being processed for the test schedule for next April.<\/p>\n
Long term Orion program planning and production also continues, and Kirasich confirmed that long-lead orders for the EM-3 vehicle were made earlier this year. \u201cOver the last four to five months we\u2019ve started ordering EM-3 raw materials, the aluminum plates that will become the crew module,\u201d he said. \u201cThose will get delivered over the ensuing months and the process starts again. So we are into EM-3.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At a recent media event, NASA\u2019s Orion Program Manager provided a brief update on development and preparations for Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1). Mark Kirasich ran through some of the current status of the EM-1 spacecraft elements that, once assembled and checked out, will make the cislunar test flight currently forecast for mid-2020. The three-to-six week EM-1 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}