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The work at MAF mainly revolves around the main welds on major hardware pieces on the crew module structure, such as the barrel and bulkhead, meaning the EFT-1 Orion is yet to look like the vehicle that will fly into space.<\/p>\n
However, the welds are a major milestone in the new vehicle\u2019s construction practises, not least because it was put together using the innovative self-reacting friction stir weld process created collaboratively by NASA and Lockheed Martin.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Z44.jpg\" "\\"Z4\\"")
Updating the latest work completed on the EFT-1 Orion, the barrel-to-aft-bulkhead weld and the aft bulkhead cap weld have now been finalized. The team also started the non-destructive evaluation (NDE) process and preliminary visual inspections, so as to ensure there are no flaws in the vehicle\u2019s structure.<\/p>\nThe remaining welds to complete the crew module structure include the tunnel to forward bulkhead weld, the forward bulkhead to cone weld, and the final closeout weld joining the cone section to the barrel. This will complete MAF\u2019s work on the vehicle, allowing for the shipping of the EFT-1 Orion to KSC in June.<\/p>\n
Space Shuttle
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Once at KSC, Orion will take up residency inside the famous Operations and Checkout (O&C) building for final assembly and outfitting.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Z53.jpg\" "\\"Z5\\"")
The vehicle will also meet its Pathfinder cousin, following its arrival from testing at Lockheed Martin\u2019s Denver facility.<\/p>\nThe pathfinder vehicle travelled more than 1,800 miles from Lockheed Martin\u2019s Waterton Facility, where it successfully completed a series of rigorous acoustic, modal and vibration tests that simulated launch and spaceflight environments.<\/p>\n
The ground test vehicle \u2013 or GTA (Ground Test Article) \u2013 will now be used for path finding operations at the O&C, in preparation for the Orion spaceflight test vehicle\u2019s arrival this summer.<\/p>\n
EFT-1 JSC Preparations:<\/p>\n
Marking the national effort taking place in preparing for the EFT-1 flight, Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) teams are already conducting simulations and training exercises inside the Shuttle Flight Control Room (FCR) \u2013 the first operations-level work to take place inside the \u201cWhite FCR\u201d since the landing of Atlantis to conclude the final shuttle mission (STS-135) last year.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Z62.jpg\" "\\"Z6\\"")
As previously reported, the test flight will be controlled by a joint NASA MOD and Lockheed Martin team, as the Delta IV Heavy \u2013 and the the Delta Cryogenic Second Stage (DCSS) \u2013 loft the Orion to an altitude of more than 3,600 miles, the furthest a vehicle \u2013 designed for human space travel \u2013 has gone into space since the Apollo era.<\/p>\nOrion will return home at a speed almost 5,000 miles per hour faster than that endured by the Space Shuttle orbiters, providing a crucial test of the vehicle\u2019s Thermal Protection System (TPS) \u2013 critical data that will be fed into the milestone of Orion\u2019s Critical Design Review (CDR), which is currently set for April, 2015.<\/p>\n
ISS Ground Controller Bill Foster \u2013 who is involved with the EFT-1 preparations at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) \u2013 recently updated the status of work taking place inside the FCR during an ISS Update segment on NASA TV.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Z81.jpg\" "\\"Z8\\"")
\u201cThe room that we used to support shuttle from is primarily being used for testing, but it will come back into a mission support mode in 2014 when we do the EFT-1 flight,\u201d noted Mr Foster. who\u2019s GC role is also sometimes referred to as the \u201cGatekeeper\u201d of mission control operations. \u201cRight now we\u2019re working with Lockheed Martin, who is the company building the Orion capsule and who are managing all of the flights for NASA.\u201d<\/p>\nWhile the FCR will still have a similar appearance as it did during shuttle missions, the EFT-1 mission will be run via a different front end processor, requiring team members to acquaint themselves with the commercial application.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to do it at the lowest cost possible, because there\u2019s not a lot of budget right now, so we\u2019re going to use a lot of the same systems we used to support shuttle. However, we are using a commercial front end processor, a commercial application from Harris Corporation, called Comet,\u201d added Mr Foster.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Z72.jpg\" "\\"Z7\\"")
\u201cOne of the things the GC\u2019s are doing is we\u2019re trying to understand how to operate that, it\u2019s different to what we\u2019ve done in the past, so we\u2019re holding weekly data flows in the White FCR, where we\u2019re learning how to operate the system, how to flow data, how to run simulations.<\/p>\n\u201cAs we get a little closer to the mission we\u2019re going to be doing end-to-end testing with an Orion test rig up in Denver and also with the Orion capsule when it moves to KSC. It\u2019ll be in the O&C building for several months, so we\u2019ll flow data between here and KSC.\u201d<\/p>\n
During this testing period, controllers in the FCR will be \u201cbuilding\u201d their displays, in order to have the right suite of information on the vehicle\u2019s status, ahead of the real mission.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Z36.jpg\" "\\"Z3\\"")
Notably, views of the White FCR\u2019s big displays at the front of the room have been showing EFT-1 style data content, although that is yet to be in sync with data from any real Orion hardware at this stage. Instead the data is being fed from a simulator built into the workstations, providing basic onboard status during different mission phases.<\/p>\n\u201cWe like to put that up (the EFT-1 graphics on the big screens) to give a bit of a flavor of what we\u2019re doing,\u201d added Mr Foster.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more familiar we are with what the mission profile is, the the better we are going to be to support it.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Images: Via NASA, NASA TV and L2). L2\u2019s new Orion and Future Spacecraft specific L2 section includes, presentations, videos, graphics and internal updates on Orion and other future spacecraft.<\/p>\n
(L2 is \u2013 as it has been for the past several years \u2013 providing full exclusive future vehicle coverage, available no where else on the internet. To join L2, click here: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/l2\/)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Preparations for Orion\u2019s first journey into space are accelerating, as flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) fire up the former Shuttle Flight Control Room (FCR) for mission simulations, while Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) engineers finalize the vehicle\u2019s baseline construction, ahead of shipping Orion to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for outfitting. EFT-1 Vehicle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30338,"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":[3688,8952,640],"class_list":["post-40128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-eft-1","tag-mcc","tag-orion"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40128"}],"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=40128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}