A critical piece of NASA’s Orion spacecraft — which may carry astronauts to deep-space locations like Mars — is about to begin a series of crucial tests to determine whether or not it can withstand the rigors of spaceflight.

The Orion service module, built by the European Space Agency, provides propulsion for the Orion vehicle and critical life support to the crew, among other things. On Nov. 7, a test version of the module was delivered to NASA Glenn Research Center’s Space Power Facility (SPF) at the Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio. The facility will test how the system will withstand the intense shaking and thrust associated with a launch, as well as the heat and pressure extremes it will encounter in space, among other things.

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“It’s the only place you can test a vehicle of this size, fully deployed, in its launch and space configuration[s], which is so important in ensuring mission success,” Jim Free, director of NASA’s Glenn Research Center, said in a press briefing yesterday (Nov. 30). “It’s really that ‘one stop shop’ for environmental tests on this scale.”

Read more at Space.com.