David Weaver/Trent Perrotto
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600/0321
david.s.weaver@nasa.gov/trent.j.perrotto@nasa.gov
Amber Philman
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
amber.n.philman@nasa.gov
Josh Byerly
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
josh.byerly@nasa.gov
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- More than 450
guests at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida welcomed the arrival of the
agency's first space-bound Orion spacecraft Monday, marking a major milestone
in the construction of the vehicle that will carry astronauts farther into
space than ever before.
"Orion's arrival at Kennedy is an
important step in meeting the president's goal to send humans to an asteroid by
2025 and to Mars in the 2030s," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver
said. "As NASA acquires services for delivery of cargo and crew to the
International Space Station and other low-Earth destinations from private
companies, NASA can concentrate its efforts on building America's next
generation space exploration system to reach destinations for discovery in deep
space. Delivery of the first space-bound Orion, coupled with recent successes
in commercial spaceflight, is proof this national strategy is working."
Orion will be the most advanced
spacecraft ever designed. It will provide emergency abort capability, sustain
astronauts during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space.
The space-bound Orion will launch on
Exploration Flight Test-1, an uncrewed mission planned for 2014. The spacecraft
will travel 3,600 miles above the Earth's surface, 15 times farther than the
International Space Station's orbital position. This is farther than any
spacecraft designed to carry humans t has gone in more than 40 years. The
primary flight objective is to understand Orion's heat shield performance at
speeds generated during a return from deep space.
In advance of the 2014 launch from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., a 400-person Orion production team at
Kennedy will apply heat shielding thermal protection systems, avionics and
other subsystems to the spacecraft. Work also is underway by the Ground Systems
Development and Operations team at Kennedy to modify and refurbish facilities
used throughout the history of American spaceflight in preparation for the next
generation of rockets and spacecraft. This includes the Vehicle Assembly
Building, Launch Control Center, launch pad, mobile launcher and
crawler-transporter.
"Work is under way on America's
next great spacecraft that will surpass the boundaries within which humanity
has been held," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the
Human Exploration Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in
Washington. "In a facility that once processed cargo for space shuttles
and various components for the International Space Station, hundreds of people
at Kennedy are coupling advanced hardware assembly systems with a new
human-rated spacecraft designed for deep space travel.. It is a fitting
testament to the American work force at Kennedy that has enabled the
exploration of space for 50 years is again working on hardware that will extend
human presence throughout the solar system."
In 2017, Orion will be launched by
NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), a heavy-lift rocket that will provide an
entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Designed
to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS will
enable new missions of exploration and expand human presence across the solar
system.
Across the country, progress is being
made on multiple components and capabilities for Orion and SLS. Orion has
successfully completed numerous splashdown tests from a variety of angles and
speeds, examining how the spacecraft will come to a rest on the ocean at the
conclusion of deep space missions. NASA also has conducted a series of
parachute tests high above the Arizona desert, demonstrating how Orion will
behave under its giant parachute canopy. Software tests have been run between
Mission Control Houston and an Orion mockup at Lockheed Martin's Exploration
Development Laboratory, allowing flight controllers to learn how the
spacecraft's onboard computers operate. Work also continues to build and
fine-tune Orion's launch abort system. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor
for Orion.
The J-2X upper-stage rocket engine,
developed by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne for the future two-stage SLS, is
being tested at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The prime contractor for
the five-segment solid rocket boosters, ATK, has begun processing its first SLS
hardware components in preparation for an initial qualification test in 2013.
The SLS core stage, which will be designed and manufactured by Boeing, has just
passed a major technical review and is moving from concept to early design.
Boeing has already delivered test bed flight computers to the program and
flight software development is underway.
The Orion crew module was built at
NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. NASA's Johnson Space Center in
Houston manages the Orion Program. SLS is managed by NASA's Marshall Space
Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. NASA's Ground Systems Development and
Operations Program is managed by Kennedy.
For more information about the Orion
Program, visit www.nasa.gov/orion.
For more information on the Space Launch
System, visit http://www.nasa.gov/sls.
For more information about the Ground
Systems Development and Operations Program at Kennedy, visit http://go.nasa.gov/groundsystems.
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