{"id":39609,"date":"2014-04-07T20:10:01","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T12:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/eft-1-orions-brain-becomes-active-ahead-of-flight\/"},"modified":"2014-04-07T20:10:01","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T12:10:01","slug":"eft-1-orions-brain-becomes-active-ahead-of-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/eft-1-orions-brain-becomes-active-ahead-of-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"EFT-1 Orion\u2019s brain becomes active ahead of flight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Orion for the Exploration Flight Test -1 (EFT-1) mission has completed its avionics system testing inside Kennedy Space Center\u2019s Operations &amp; Checkout (O&amp;C) Building. The testing follows the activation of its flight computer, with the avionics&nbsp;system serving as the eyes, ears and brains of the spacecraft. EFT-1 is scheduled to launch at the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>\nEFT-1 Orion:<\/p>\n<p>The December mission will provide Orion with a debut trip into space, lofted by a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV-Heavy.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"widget-title penci-border-arrow\">See Also<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Orion Forum Section<\/li>\n<li>L2 Orion Section<\/li>\n<li>Click here to Join L2<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>During EFT-1, the Orion will be lofted to altitude of&nbsp;more than 3,600 miles, prior to a return to Earth on a high-speed re-entry at more than 20,000 mph, with the results feeding into Orion\u2019s key Critical Design Review (CDR), set for the middle of 2015.<\/p>\n<p>The recent delay to the mission from the summer to December \u2013 caused by the&nbsp;prioritization of a military satellite launch for the&nbsp;Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness (GEO SSA) system \u2013 is not thought to have delayed the CDR process.<\/p>\n<p>While key elements of the launch vehicle began arriving at the famous spaceport last month, the EFT-1 Orion engineers and technicians were continuing their lengthy outfitting work inside the O&amp;C Building.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" alt=\"First weld on EFT-1 Orion\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/A35.jpg\" width=\"350\" height=\"252\">The vehicle has come a long way since the first physical signs of&nbsp;Orion\u2019s new life was seen at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans, as the EFT-1 vehicle saw its first panels welded together.<\/p>\n<p>The spacecraft enjoyed a successful build at the former home of&nbsp;External Tank&nbsp;production,&nbsp;prior to heading to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for around 18 months-worth of outfitting operations.<\/p>\n<p>     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n<p>With the appearance of a lifeless shell, the huge task of installing additional structural elements, miles of wiring and eventually the Thermal Protection System (TPS) \u2013 that will allow for the spacecraft to survive its return from space \u2013 all started to follow roadmap of processing set out by Orion\u2019s main contractor, Lockheed Martin.<\/p>\n<p>For more Orion News Articles, click here:&nbsp;http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/tag\/orion\/<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" alt=\"Z8\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Z82.jpg\" width=\"357\" height=\"229\">In October of last year, Orion was powered up for the first time, allowing for an initial checkout of the spacecraft\u2019s avionics software package.<\/p>\n<p>During this initial test,&nbsp;operators in the Test Launch and Control Center (TLCC) introduced software scripts to the crew module\u2019s main control computers via thousands of wires and electrical ground support equipment during the power up.<\/p>\n<p>The led the way for a full checkout of the avionics system, since concluded after powering on and sending commands to more than 20 different critical systems installed on the spacecraft\u2019s crew module.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-33090\" alt=\"Z6\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Z61.jpg\" width=\"348\" height=\"248\">\u201cFollowing the initial power on of the Vehicle Main Computer in October, engineers have since methodically installed additional harnessing, wiring and electronics onto the crew module \u2013 completing the avionics system that serves as the eyes, ears and brains of the spacecraft,\u201d noted Lockheed Martin on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>During these tests, engineers individually activated and sent commands to the pyrotechnics, batteries, thermal control, cameras, guidance and navigation, propulsion, and environmental control life support systems, all while evaluating signal quality, on-board system responses, and data production.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" alt=\"Staging Profile (Contray to the Con Ops)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Z75.jpg\" width=\"349\" height=\"208\">\u201cEach and every one of these systems is critical to mission success and they must perform flawlessly to ensure the safety of future crews,\u201d noted Cleon Lacefield, Lockheed Martin Orion program manager.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow that we\u2019ve finished functional testing, the team will conduct performance testing and turn on all the systems at once, simulating the spacecraft\u2019s operations during EFT-1.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following EFT-1, Orion will look forward to a ride on the Space Launch System (SLS). Known as Exploration Mission -1 (EM-1), the spacecraft will set sail for its first trip into deep space.<\/p>\n<p>That mission is tasked with&nbsp;lofting an Orion on a mission that will send the spacecraft&nbsp;70,000 km past the Moon on a 25 day flight.<\/p>\n<p>(Images via NASA, Lockheed Martin and L2. To join L2, click here:&nbsp;http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/l2\/)<\/p>\n<p>*If you are a college or university student in engineering or one of the space flight disciplines, you can now apply for a free one year L2 membership term under our scholarship program. *Click here for details*<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Orion for the Exploration Flight Test -1 (EFT-1) mission has completed its avionics system testing inside Kennedy Space Center\u2019s Operations &amp; Checkout (O&amp;C) Building. The testing follows the activation of its flight computer, with the avionics&nbsp;system serving as the eyes, ears and brains of the spacecraft. EFT-1 is scheduled to launch at the end [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30311,"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":[3688,640],"class_list":["post-39609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-eft-1","tag-orion"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39609"}],"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=39609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}