Small parts, big ambition.
NASA’s Orion crew capsule will take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before.
Among the highlights for Orion’s progress in April, special attention and appreciation was given to an important supplier of spacecraft components–Cobham Semiconductor Solutions. Employees of the company received thanks from leading members of Orion’s team.
Cobham is a supplier of microelectronics as well as motion control and valve systems. These systems are used by Honeywell Aerospace, which is a member of the avionics integrated product team. This team is led by Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for Orion.
But the important parts of Orion aren’t parts–they’re people.
The Cobham employees received special appreciation by members of Orion’s team for their contributions to the spacecraft’s successful test flight in 2014 at an event held at Cobham’s Plainview facility in New York.
Speaking at this meeting were NASA’s Bob Ess, the power and software manager for Orion avionics; Astronaut Lee Morin; Paul Anderson, the Orion avionics director at Lockheed Martin; and Steve Mayers, the lead engineer on Honeywell’s Orion project. The speakers updated more than 120 employees that attended the event on the program’s recent progress.
Orion is an essential part of NASA’s Journey to Mars. It will carry humans into deep space and return them safely to Earth. Together with NASA’s new rocket, Space Launch System, the Orion spacecraft will launch on Exploration Mission-1 in 2018.
To learn more about Orion, click here.
For more about NASA’s Journey to Mars, check out NASA.gov.