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The latest launch date now appears to be Q2 (Second Quarter) or Spring, 2014 \u2013 as is expected to be manifested at the conclusion of the contract negotiations.<\/p>\n
While it is understood the schedule is not being impacted by the Orion set to fly \u2013 an uncrewed vehicle which continues to be manufactured at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans \u2013 the entire EFT-1 deal has a large amount of in-built complexity due to the numerous cross-partnership deals in place for this mission.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/A44.jpg\" "\\"A44\\"")
For the purchase of the required Delta IV-Heavy, Lockheed Martin have had to work a deal with NASA for purchasing one of the launch vehicles, a deal which is then updated to one between Lockheed Martin and the United Launch Alliance (ULA). Lockheed Martin and Boeing make up the ULA, the joint company is the body responsible for the Delta IV-H.<\/p>\nFor the actual mission, a Joint Test and Mission Operations Team \u2013 consisting of NASA MOD (Mission Operations Directorate) and Lockheed Martin personnel \u2013 has already been approved, supporting the development phase of the mission, through the real-time test flight support operation and post test flight vehicle processing.<\/p>\n
Rocket launch schedules
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Lockheed Martin are the contractor for Orion under a multi-billion dollar NASA deal, which has also undergone a huge amount of stress via the Constellation Program (CxP), its cancellation, and then the subsequent reinstatement of Orion into the new exploration program, which is mainly tasked with building the Space Launch System (SLS).<\/p>\n
SLS won\u2019t be ready by at least 2017, meaning Orion \u2013 which was initially designed to ride atop of the much-different Ares I launch vehicle, a vehicle which caused numerous design changes to the spacecraft and visa versa \u2013 will have waited nine years to actually fly into space since its announcement as the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), on a mission which will be at least five years before its debuted crewed mission with SLS-2.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/A310.jpg\" "\\"A310\\"")
It has been argued that the main reason Orion has suffered from a troublesome childhood is due to political\/funding issues, as was intimated during the Augustine Commission\u2019s review into NASA\u2019s Human Space Flight program, which deemed Constellation to be technically sound, but lacking in funding to achieve pre-scheduled milestones.<\/p>\nAlthough Orion has been re-tasked as a Beyond Earth Orbit (BEO) spacecraft, it is likely its commercial sister, SpaceX\u2019s Dragon \u2013 which also has BEO ambitions \u2013 will have already travelled to the ISS several times by the time Orion launches on its debut.<\/p>\n
This mission \u2013 involving two orbits to a high-apogee, with a high-energy re-entry through Earth\u2019s atmosphere on what is a multi-hour test, testing critical re-entry flight performance data and demonstrating early integration capabilities \u2013 is required, as outlined in a released document setting out the \u201cJustification for other than full and open competition\u201d for awarding the contract for EFT-1 to Lockheed Martin Space Systems Corp.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Z29.jpg\" "\\"Z2\\"")
\u201cNASA has a one-time requirement for critical performance data from an integrated flight test of the Orion spacecraft as part of the Orion Design, Development, Test and Evaluation (DDT&E) phase,\u201d noted the opening remarks. \u201cThe EFT-1 is an early test flight required by early 2014, of the Orion spacecraft that is currently being developed by Lockheed Martin.<\/p>\n\u201cThe EFT-1 flight test of the Orion spacecraft is required to facilitate earlier and more robust testing of critical Orion systems that contribute to 10 of the 16 highest risks to crew survivabilitu and exploration mission failure, including parachutes, back shell and heat shield Thermal Protection System, Forward Bay Cover separation contact and flight software.\u201d<\/p>\n
The document also points out that the EFT-1 schedule is directly associated with the milestone of Orion\u2019s Critical Design Review (CDR), which is currently set for April, 2015.<\/p>\n
Click here for recent Orion articles: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/tag\/orion\/<\/p>\n
\u201cThe CDR is a critical DDT&E milestone, where the contractor discloses its complete spacecraft system design in full detail, identifying areas where technical problems and design anomalies have been resolved,\u201d the document states.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Z38.jpg\" "\\"Z3\\"")
\u201cSuccessful completion of the CDR will validate that the contractor\u2019s spacecraft design maturity is at an acceptable level that justifies the decision to initiate fabrication\/manufacturing, integration and verification of the flight hardware and software.\u201d<\/p>\nWith the support of EFT-1 for the CDR process, those testing elements which cannot be conducted on the ground or via simulations will provide NASA with \u201csignificant risk reduction\u201d whilst \u201cproviding an opportunity to identify technical problems and design anomalies\u201d \u2013 directly feeding into the EM1 (Exploration Mission-1) Orion which will launch on SLS\u2019 debut mission in 2017.<\/p>\n
The document went on to focus on the contract, noting both Boeing and SpaceX did respond to the original solicitation. However, they were only in a position to offer the launch vehicle capability, as opposed to the full \u201cend-to-end EFT-1 effort\u201d required by NASA.<\/p>\n
Several Orions were \u2013 and continue to be \u2013 in various stages of testing and manufacture across the States in 2011 and through to 2012 \u2013 such as the vibration testing at Lockheed Martin\u2019s Denver facilities and the water drop tests at NASA\u2019s Langley Flight Research Center (LaRC), since completed \u2013 along with the EFT-1 work at MAF.<\/p>\n
(Images: Via L2 content, NASA and ULA). 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":"
The first launch into space for NASA\u2019s new Orion spacecraft is expected to receive a realigned Spring 2014 launch date, once contract negotiations between NASA and Lockheed Martin are finalized at the end this month. The mission, which will see Orion launched on an uncrewed flight, will be launched by a Delta IV-Heavy. EFT-1: The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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":[8296,3688,640],"class_list":["post-40225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-delta-iv","tag-eft-1","tag-orion"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40225"}],"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=40225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}