Humans haven’t traveled beyond the moon yet, but they will in NASA’s new crew capsule.
Last month, significant progress was made on the Orion spacecraft that will take humans deeper into space than we’ve ever gone before.
Check out some of last month’s highlights:
–Pressure testing was conducted on the crew module, and the weld points of the underlying structure were evaluated. This underlying structure is called the pressure vessel, and testing confirmed that the weld points will protect astronauts on their deep space missions.
Orion’s pressure vessel. Photo credit: NASA/Rad Sinyak
For more information on this pressure test, click here.
–Airbus Defense and Space begun assembling Orion’s service module last month. It will provide power, propulsion, air, water and thermal control for future astronauts. The final assembly will take place in Bremen, Germany. Click here to learn more.
–Orion must withstand the force and pressure of the acoustics environment. To evaluate this, a structural representation of the service module was tested last month at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. Learn more here.
From the assembly of the spacecraft’s powerhouse to the successful pressure testing of the spacecraft, Orion is on track to enable human exploration deep into outer space.
Curious to learn more? Check out the full May newsletter for Orion at NASA.gov.