What is soon riding to space on top of a 322-foot tall rocket?
Orion – NASA’s new crew vehicle that will take humans farther into space than we’ve ever been.
This first integrated flight of NASA’s new deep space crew vehicle with its rocket in 2018 will be an important step toward future human exploration missions. This first flight is called Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1). During the mission, the performance of Space Launch System (SLS) will be evaluated as well as the systems that are designed to support a crew.
When Orion launches on top of SLS, the crew vehicle will experience quite a bit of vibration. SLS will send Orion into space where it will embark on a mission lasting approximately three weeks and fly tens of thousands of miles beyond the moon.
The following flight of Orion will have humans onboard, and it’s essential to make sure that they will be able to effectively interact with the spacecraft. To do this, engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston are simulating conditions of vibration that astronauts would experience during launch.
What does this involve? Test subjects wear spacesuits specifically developed for astronauts to use in Orion called Modified Advanced Crew Escape Suits and sit in the latest seat design on top of a crew impact attenuation system. This will be the first time that the hardware will be tested to see how the vibrations of launch may affect the ability of an astronaut to see the displays and control.
This series of tests are helping human factors engineers evaluate how well astronauts are able to interact with the displays and controls they will use to monitor the spacecraft’s systems and operate the spacecraft when necessary.
Many important tests are necessary before the crew vehicle’s unmanned 2018 flight, and last year these included tests of the spacecraft’s heat shield, parachute system and recovery techniques. Tests like this are important steps before sending astronauts into space and returning them safely to Earth. Components of SLS are also being evaluated under the stressful conditions of launch.
Together, SLS and Orion will usher in a new era of space exploration and enable human exploration of multiple deep space destinations.
Learn more about the Orion spacecraft that will take humans beyond low Earth orbit at NASA.gov.