Orion had an eventful last year full of exciting progress in advance of its 2018 flight.
Orion is NASA’s new multi-purpose deep space crew vehicle. Launching in 2018 on top of Space Launch System (SLS), NASA’s new rocket, the Orion capsule will travel beyond the moon before returning to Earth. This first integrated mission of SLS and Orion will be unmanned, and future missions will carry humans into deep space – something that hasn’t been done since the Apollo missions ended 44 years ago.
In the past year, many tests were completed that included recovery after an ocean splashdown, solar panel deployment, parachute systems, launch vibrations, the launch abort system, crew module pressure tests and many more to make sure we’re go for launch in 2018.
What’s next?
This year will be full of exciting milestones leading us closer to the day Orion blasts off into space.
The computers inside the crew module will be turned on the first time this spring. These will verify that Orion can route power and send commands for its first mission, known as Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1).
The service module for Orion is being built by the European Space Agency (ESA), incorporating components from companies in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Spain, the Netherlands, and the USA. After structural and systems work is finished in Germany at Airbus Defence and Space, the prime contractor to ESA for the European Service Module, the service module will be shipped to Kennedy Space Center for the 2018 flight.
During the summer, the heat shield that will protect the crew module during its reentry through Earth’s atmosphere will be secured to the module. The crew and service modules will then be stacked together. The whole stack will be sent to NASA Glenn’s Plum Brook Station in Ohio where it will undergo testing, making sure it’s prepared for launch and the harsh deep space environment.
Construction will start on the Orion vehicle that will carry humans into deep space as soon as 2021. The initial panels for the underlying structure of the crew module, the pressure vessel, should arrive at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans during the spring for welding. This will be happening at the same time as the outfitting and assembly for the first Orion mission.
Critical testing will take place this year – mechanism separation tests for a structural test article, acoustic and pressure testing at Lockheed Martin’s facility near Denver, parachute tests over Arizona, and human factors testing will all happen in 2017.
NASA and its partners have come so far in the past year with the progress they have made on the Orion deep space crew vehicle. With a new year full of exciting progress to come on the spacecraft, we are closer than ever before to launching humans deep into space and returning them safely to the Earth.
Curious to learn more about Orion? Visit NASA.gov.