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Community => Recreation Commons => Destination: Alpha Centauri => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on September 11, 2014, 06:44:50 pm

Title: NASA's newest human spacecraft on the move
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 11, 2014, 06:44:50 pm

NASA's newest human spacecraft on the move
Associated Press
By MARCIA DUNN  1 hour ago


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NASA's Orion spacecraft, preparing for its first flight, departs the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building on its way to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Orion is scheduled for a test flight in early December. (AP Photo/John Raoux)



CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is one step closer to launching its newest spacecraft designed for humans.

Workers at Kennedy Space Center gathered to watch as the Orion capsule emerged from its assembly hangar Thursday morning, less than three months from its first test flight.

The capsule — sealed for protection — slowly made its way to its fueling depot atop a 36-wheel platform. The capsule and its attached service module and adapter ring stretched 40 feet high.


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NASA's Orion spacecraft, preparing for it's first flight, departs the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building on its way to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Orion is scheduled for a test flight in early December. (AP Photo/John Raoux)


"Isn't this awesome?" said Kennedy's director, Robert Cabana, a former space shuttle commander. "This is our step to the future, the exploration of establishing a presence in the solar system."

Space center employees lined up along the rope barricade to snap pictures of Orion, NASA's lofty follow-on to the now-retired space shuttle program.

During its Dec. 4 test flight, the unmanned capsule will shoot more than 3,600 miles into space and take two big laps around Earth before re-entering the atmosphere at 20,000 mph and parachuting into the Pacific off the San Diego coast. The entire mission will last 4½ hours.


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NASA's Orion spacecraft, preparing for it's first flight, arrives at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Orion is scheduled for a test flight in early December. (AP Photo/John Raoux)


The second Orion flight won't occur until around 2018 when another unmanned capsule soars atop NASA's new megarocket, still under development, called SLS for Space Launch System.

NASA intends to put astronauts aboard Orion in 2021 for deep space exploration; each capsule can accommodate up to four.

The plan is to use Orion for getting humans to asteroids and Mars — no space station ferry trips for Orion. A handful of private U.S. companies are competing for these short taxi flights; NASA expects in the next week or so to pick one or two candidates for funding.

While Orion may resemble an oversize Apollo capsule on the outside, everything inside and out is modern and top-of-the-line, officials noted Thursday. "I'm as excited as can be," said NASA's Orion production operations manager, Scott Wilson.

For Orion's dry run, the Lockheed Martin Corp.-built capsule will have hunks of aluminum in place of seats for ballast, and simulators instead of actual cockpit displays. A Delta IV rocket will do the heavy lifting.


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NASA's Orion spacecraft, preparing for it's first flight, departs the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building on its way to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Orion is scheduled for a test flight in early December. (AP Photo/John Raoux)


When asked by a reporter, Cabana said he wishes Orion's flight pace was quicker.

"But it is what it is," he said. "Given the budget that we have, I think we've got the best program that you could imagine."

Orion has its roots in the post-Columbia shuttle era; it originated a decade ago as a crew exploration vehicle to get astronauts beyond low Earth orbit and managed to survive the cancellation of the Constellation moon project.

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/mpcv/ (http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/mpcv/)

Lockheed Martin: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/orion.html (http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/orion.html)


http://news.yahoo.com/nasas-newest-human-spacecraft-move-135635209.html (http://news.yahoo.com/nasas-newest-human-spacecraft-move-135635209.html)

Title: NASA prepares Orion capsule for debut deep-space test flight
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 11, 2014, 08:49:42 pm

NASA prepares Orion capsule for debut deep-space test flight
Reuters
By Irene Klotz  2 hours ago


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The Orion capsule sits on top of the service module as it is moved from the Operations & Checkout Building to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (L) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida September 11, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Brown



CAPE CANAVERAL Fla. (Reuters) - A NASA spacecraft designed to one day fly astronauts to Mars rolled out of its processing hangar at the U.S. space agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday to be prepared for a debut test flight in December.

"This is a pretty historic moment for us," Scott Wilson, NASA's Orion production operations manager, told reporters as workers prepared to move the capsule to a fueling depot. "This marks the end of the assembly process for the spacecraft."

An unmanned version of the gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, which has been under construction for three years, is due to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy rocket on Dec. 4 from nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

United Launch Alliance is jointly owned by Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co .

In December Orion will be flown to an altitude of about 3,600 miles (5,800 km) from Earth, 14 times farther away than the International Space Station.


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The Orion capsule is pictured as it is moved from the Operations & Checkout Building to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, Florida September 11, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Brown


The capsule will then careen back toward the planet, slamming into the atmosphere at 20,000 mph (32,000 kph). At that speed, Orion's thermal protection system should heat up to about 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,200 degrees Celsius), proving the shield can protect astronauts returning from the moon and other deep-space destinations.

Orion is part of NASA's follow-up program to the now-retired space shuttles that will allow astronauts to travel beyond the International Space Station, which flies about 260 miles (418 km) above Earth.

A test flight with crew aboard is set for 2021. NASA intends to use the rocket and Orion to fly astronauts to an asteroid that has been robotically relocated into a high orbit around the moon. Eventually, the U.S. space agency wants to fly a four-member crew to Mars.

NASA has been out of the human space launch business since the shuttle program ended in 2011.

The agency currently buys rides for space station crew members aboard Russian Soyuz capsules. A heated three-way competition to build a U.S.-based commercial space taxi is also under way. The contenders are privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, also known as SpaceX, privately owned Sierra Nevada Corp and Boeing.

Work on the Orion deep-space capsule, built by Lockheed Martin, began more than a decade ago under NASA's defunct Constellation moon program. NASA has already spent about $9 billion developing Orion.

(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by David Adans and Susan Heavey)


http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-prepares-orion-capsule-debut-deep-space-test-165400073--finance.html (http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-prepares-orion-capsule-debut-deep-space-test-165400073--finance.html)