Space Launch System (12)

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SPACE WATCH

Orion Crew Module at Kennedy Space Center

NASA – Astronaut Don Pettit watches as a technician works on the Orion crew module inside the Operations and Checkout Building high bay at Kennedy Space Center on March 21, 2013.

The last of eight reaction control system (RCS) pods for the first flight test of Orion has arrived at Kennedy Space Center‘s Operations and Checkout Building from the manufacturer, Aerojet, in Redmond, Wash. The pods will provide the critical maneuvers necessary for Orion’s re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere during Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), scheduled to launch in 2014.

Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry humans farther into space than ever before. The spacecraft will provide emergency abort capability, sustain crews during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep-space return velocities.

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Image Credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis

Space Launch System (11)

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SPACE WATCH

Orion Service Module
NASA – This artist’s concept of the Orion Service Module was introduced today. When the Orion spacecraft blasts off atop NASA’s Space Launch System rocket in 2017, attached will be the ESA-provided service module – the powerhouse that fuels and propels the Orion spacecraft.

Orion will be the most advanced spacecraft ever designed and carry astronauts farther into space than ever before. It will sustain astronauts during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space and emergency abort capability. 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.

The service module of the Orion spacecraft will provide support to the crew module from launch through separation prior to atmospheric re-entry.

Space Launch System (10)

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SPACE WATCH

Orion Spacecraft
NASA – Technicians prepare to fit a special fixture around an Orion capsule inside the high bay of the Operations & Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The fixture is designed to enable precise pre-launch processing of the Orion spacecraft.

Orion will be the most advanced spacecraft ever designed and carry astronauts farther into space than ever before. It will sustain astronauts during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space and emergency abort capability. 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.

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NASA technology (25)

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SLS Model ‘Flies’ Through Langley Wind Tunnel Testing
NASA – NASA’s Space Launch System buffet model in NASA’s Langley Researcher Center’s Transonic Dynamics Tunnel. The SLS is America‘s next heavy-lift launch vehicle that will provide an entirely new capability for science and human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit Image credit: NASA/LaRC

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NASA technology (24)

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J-2X — Back in the Saddle Again
NASA – A J-2X power pack assembly burns brightly during a hot fire test Nov. 27 at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Engineers pulled the assembly from the test stand in September to install additional instrumentation in the fuel turbopump. The test, which ran for 278 seconds, verified the newly installed strain gauges designed to measure the turbine structural strain when the turbopump is spinning at high speeds that vary between 25,000 and 30,000 rotations-per-minute. The J-2X engine — built by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif. — will power the upper stage of NASA’s Space Launch System, managed at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The new heavy-lift rocket system will launch the Orion spacecraft and enable humans to explore new destinations beyond low Earth orbit Image credit: NASA/SSC

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