NASAs Orion spacecraft continues on the agencys journey to Mars as engineers analyze data from the spacecrafts December flight test and make progress developing and building the spacecraft for its first mission atop NASA Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket.

At machine houses across the country, elements of the primary structure for the next Orion to fly in space are coming together. Avionics components are being built and simulators for the ESA (European Space Agency)-built service module that will house the spacecrafts propulsion and solar arrays are being delivered. By the end of the year, engineers hope to have the primary structure for Orions next mission to NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida for processing. Meanwhile, every piece of data and each element of the spacecraft flown in the December test is being analyzed and compared to pre-flight models to improve Orions design.

Orions flight test was a big success and what we learned is informing how we design, develop and build future Orions that will help us pioneer deep space destinations, said Mark Geyer, NASAs Orion Program manager. Taking a look at all the flight test data is a huge part of the development process and a key part off in why we flew a test flight. We have critical work happening this year, both on the data analysis and development side, to keep us moving toward our first mission with SLS.

Engineers and technicians at Kennedy, where Orion was assembled and returned after its flight test, recently took off the back shell and heat shield that protected Orion during its reentry to Earths atmosphere, to unload unused propellants and allow for a close-up analysis of the spacecrafts systems.

One of the main objectives of Orions flight, which sent the vehicle 3,600 miles into space during a two-orbit, 4.5-hour test, was to test how the spacecraft would fare returning to Earth at high speeds and temperatures.

The heat shield looks in great shape, said Michael Hawes, Orion Program manager for Lockheed Martin, NASAs prime contractor for the spacecraft. The char on the shield is consistent. If you look at it now, youd see a few big holes because weve taken core samples. Weve also done a total laser scan of the surface of the heat shield. Thatll give us a very detailed engineering base of knowledge of what the heat shield did.

In March, the heat shield will be shipped to NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where the ablative material on the heat shield will be taken off. From there, the heat shield structure will be shipped to the agencys Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, where it will be reused on a test capsule for water impact testing. NASA and Lockheed Martin also are taking a look at potential modifications to the heat shields design to make it even stronger.

Evaluating how the thermal protection system fared during Orions reentry wasnt the only critical objective of the flight. The test also provided important insight into key separation events, including whether the Launch Abort System and protective fairings came off at the right times, how the parachutes assisting Orion during its descent fared and how the operations to recovery Orion from the Pacific Ocean progressed.

Originally posted here:

NASAs Orion Flight Test Yields Critical Data