Technicians work inside the Orion crew module being built at Kennedy Space Center to prepare it for its first power on. Turning the avionics system inside the capsule on for the first time marks a major milestone in Orion’s final year of preparations before its first mission, Exploration Flight Test. (Credit: Lockheed Martin) In 2013, for the first time, Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin and NASA engineers powered on the Orion crew module at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This critical milestone brought together hundreds of separate electronic elements that have been designed, built and tested by dozens of companies across the country involved in the Orion program. The test successfully demonstrated that the crew module avionics were integrated properly and are in good health. Most recently, the Orion heat shield was delivered to Kennedy Space Center and will soon be fastened onto the crew module. The 16.5 foot diameter heat shield is the largest of its kind ever built. It was fabricated by Lockheed Martin in Denver, and Textron Defense Systems, outside of Boston, covered the shield’s outer surface with Avcoat™, an ablative material system used on the Apollo spacecraft.
Posted on: Sat, 10 May 2014 12:17:46 +0000
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