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

[Ron Baalke]

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