[meteorite-list] NASA's Orion Spacecraft is Ready to Feel the Heat

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2014 12:36:14 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201406051936.s55JaE8b029827_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

June 5, 2014
     
NASA's Orion Spacecraft is Ready to Feel the Heat

NASA and Lockheed Martin engineers have installed the largest heat shield
ever constructed on the crew module of the agency's Orion spacecraft. The
work marks a major milestone on the path toward the spacecraft's first launch
in December.

"It is extremely exciting to see the heat shield in place, ready to do its
job," said Mark Geyer, Orion Program manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center
in Houston. "The heat shield is such a critical piece, not just for this
mission, but for our plans to send humans into deep space."

The heat shield is made of a coating called Avcoat, which burns away as it
heats up in a process called ablation to prevent the transfer of extreme
temperatures to the crew module. The Avcoat is covered with a silver
reflective tape that protects the material from the extreme cold temperatures
of space.

Orion's flight test, or Exploration Flight Test-1, will provide engineers
with data about the heat shield's ability to protect Orion and its future
crews from the 4,000-degree heat of reentry and an ocean splashdown following
the spacecraft's 20,000-mph reentry from space.

Data gathered during the flight will inform decisions about design
improvements on the heat shield and other Orion systems, and authenticate
existing computer models and new approaches to space systems design and
development. This process is critical to reducing overall risks and costs of
future Orion missions -- missions that will include exploring an asteroid and
Mars.

Orion's flight test also will provide important data for the agency's Space
Launch System (SLS) rocket and ocean recovery of Orion. Engineers at NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, have built an advanced
adapter to connect Orion to the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket
that will launch the spacecraft during the December test. The adapter also
will be used during future SLS missions. NASA's Ground Systems Development
and Operations Program, based at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, will
recover the Orion crew module with the U.S. Navy after its splashdown in the
Pacific Ocean.

The heat shield was manufactured at Lockheed Martin's Waterton Facility near
Denver. Construction was completed at Textron Defense Systems near Boston
before the heat shield was shipped to the Operations and Checkout Building at
Kennedy, where Orion is being assembled.

In the coming months, the Orion crew and service modules will be joined and
put through functional tests before the spacecraft is transported to
Kennedy's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility for fueling. The spacecraft
then will be transferred to the Launch Abort System (LAS) Facility to be
connected to the LAS before making the journey to Cape Canaveral's Space
Launch Complex 37 for pad integration and launch operations.

For more information on Orion, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/orion

-end-

Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
rachel.h.kraft at nasa.gov

Amber Philman
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
amber.n.philman at nasa.gov

Brandi Dean
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
brandi.k.dean at nasa.gov
Received on Thu 05 Jun 2014 03:36:14 PM PDT