Orion

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NASA | Exploration Mission-1 – Pushing Farther Into Deep Space

NASA.gov Video

Опубликовано: 18 сент. 2017 г.

In the next eight minutes, you'll experience a twenty-five-and-a-half-day mission from roll-out to recovery of the first integrated flight test of NASA's Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System rocket, launching from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This uncrewed mission will be the first in a planned series of exploration missions beyond the moon, signaling what astronauts who dare to operate in deep space will experience on future flights.

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[Чебурашка]

За десять лет в NASA достигнут значительный прогресс в рисовании мультиков.
Данный мультик выглядит значительно красивее, чем те что рисовали 10 лет назад во времена Constellation 

В остальном прогресс не замечен  :cry:

[silentpom]

вопрос - какая скорость нужна для перехода от орбиты  1,800 km by 93 km  до translunar injection?
для сатурн-5 там вроде 3 км/с было, но исходную орбиту что-то не нашел

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Chris G - NSF‏ @CwG_NSF 4 мин. назад

#SLS EM-1 is now NET 15 Dec. 2019. EM-3 has received a preliminary flight plan for a 16-26 day mission. #NASA

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Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 28 мин. назад

ARTICLE: SLS EM-1 & -2 launch dates realign; EM-3 gains notional mission outline - https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/09/sls-em-1-em-3-notional-mission-outline/ ... - by @CwG_NSF

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SLS EM-1 & -2 launch dates realign; EM-3 gains notional mission outline

SLS EM-1 & -2 launch dates realign; EM-3 gains notional mission outline
September 22, 2017 by Chris Gebhardt

Following a series of issues over the last year with the Core Stage for the first flight of the Space Launch System rocket, the launch dates for both the EM-1 and EM-2 flights are beginning to align, with EM-1 now targeting No Earlier Than 15 December 2019 and EM-2 following on 1 June 2022. Additionally, the EM-3 flight has gained its first notional mission outline, detailing a flight to Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit to deploy the Hab module for the new Deep Space Gateway.
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Inside KSC! for Sept. 29, 2017

NASAKennedy

Опубликовано: 29 сент. 2017 г.

The first major integrated operation at Launch Pad 39B began this week with the initial tanking of a cryogenic fuel, liquid oxygen, into a giant sphere at the northwest corner of the pad. Construction of new facilities and demolition of outdated facilities also continued as Kennedy Space Center completes the transition to a multi-user spaceport.

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Orbital ATK‏Подлинная учетная запись @OrbitalATK 8 окт.

We continue to march toward the 1st @NASA_SLS mission with the completion of two launch abort motors for the @NASA_Orion Launch Abort System

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Orion Spacecraft‏Подлинная учетная запись @NASA_Orion 4 ч. назад

.@Thales_Alenia_S in Turin, Italy, is building structure for Orion's 2nd @ESA Service Module that will carry humans beyond the Moon

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https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/work-progresses-on-orion-powerhouse-for-crewed-mission
Oct. 12, 2017
Work Progresses on Orion Powerhouse for Crewed Mission



While engineers in Europe continue to outfit the Orion spacecraft's service module for Exploration Mission-1 in preparation for shipment to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida next year, work is already beginning on the service module that will power, propel, cool and provide air and water for the first crewed mission in the Orion spacecraft in the early 2020s. Technicians at Thales Alenia in Turin, Italy, are working on the primary structure of the European Service Module that will carry astronauts in Orion beyond the Moon during Exploration Mission-2. ESA (European Space Agency) and its contractors are providing Orion's service module for its first two missions atop the Space Launch System rocket. NASA is leading the next steps in human space exploration and will send astronauts to the vicinity of the Moon to build and test the systems needed for challenging missions to deep space destinations including Mars. NASA is working with domestic and international partners to solve the great challenges of deep space exploration.

Credit: NASA/Rad Sinyak

Last Updated: Oct. 12, 2017
Editor: Mark Garcia

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https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/orion-processing-continues-for-nasas-exploration-mission-1

Oct. 16, 2017

Orion Processing Continues for NASA's Exploration Mission-1



NASA's Orion crew module is being prepared for its first uncrewed integrated flight test atop the Space Launch System rocket. Inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building high bay at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a variety of test stands, processing bays and hardware are in view. Thermal protection panels and other components for Orion are in various stages of processing. Orion will launch on the SLS rocket from Kennedy's Launch Pad 39B on Exploration Mission-1. The spacecraft will travel thousands of miles beyond the Moon over the course of about a three-week period. Orion will return to Earth and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky

Last Updated: Oct. 16, 2017
Editor: Linda Herridge

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Вышел очередной, сентябрьский, номер

orion_monthly_newsletter_09-2017.pdf - 2324754 B, 8 стр, 2017-10-13 16:45:05 UTC

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Airbus Space‏Подлинная учетная запись @AirbusSpace 3 ч. назад

The first mission of @NASA_Orion (EM1) will travel around the Moon preparing for first crewed flights. Learn more #ASE30 #OrionESM

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Inside KSC! for Oct. 20, 2017

NASAKennedy

Опубликовано: 20 окт. 2017 г.

The Kennedy Space Center recently took further steps in NASA's efforts to send humans beyond low-Earth orbit as the core stage inter-tank umbilical, or CSITU, was lifted to the mobile launcher for a fit check. The mobile launcher's crew access arm also was transported from Precision Fabricating and Cleaning in Cocoa, Florida, to the center.

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https://blogs.nasa.gov/kennedy/2017/10/23/new-umbilical-fitted-for-mobile-launcher-to-support-nasas-deep-space-exploration-missions/

или

https://blogs.nasa.gov/groundsystems/2017/10/23/new-umbilical-fitted-for-mobile-launcher-to-support-nasas-deep-space-exploration-missions/

New Umbilical Fitted for Mobile Launcher to Support NASA's Deep Space Exploration Missions
Posted on October 23, 2017 at 2:29 pm by Linda Herridge.
          

High up on the mobile launcher tower at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, construction workers assist as a crane moves the Core Stage Inter-tank Umbilical (CSITU) into place for a fit check of the attachment hardware. Photo credit: NASA/Glenn Benson

Engineers lifted and installed a third umbilical on the mobile launcher at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a fit check. The tower on the mobile launcher will be equipped with several connections or launch umbilicals like this one. After the fit check was completed, the umbilical was lowered down and will be installed permanently at a later date.

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The umbilicals will provide power, communications, coolant and fuel. They will be used to connect the mobile launcher to the agency's Space Launch System (made up of the core stage, twin solid rocket boosters, and the interim cryogenic propulsion stage) and the Orion spacecraft mounted on top of SLS.

An area on the SLS between the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks is known as the core stage inter-tank. The core-stage inter-tank umbilical is the third in a series of five new umbilicals for the mobile launcher. Its main function is to vent excess gaseous hydrogen from the rocket's core stage. This umbilical also will provide conditioned air, pressurized gases, and power and data connection to the core stage.

The Orion service module umbilical and the core stage forward skirt umbilical were previously installed on the tower. The service module umbilical will connect from the mobile launch tower to the Orion service module. Prior to launch, the umbilical will transfer liquid coolant for the electronics and purge air/gaseous nitrogen for environmental control. The SLS core stage forward skirt is near the top of the core stage, and the forward skirt umbilical provides connections and conditioned air/gaseous nitrogen to the core stage of the rocket. All these umbilicals will swing away from the rocket and spacecraft just before launch.

Several other umbilicals were previously installed on the mobile launcher. These include two aft skirt purge umbilicals, which will connect to the SLS rocket at the bottom outer edge of each booster and provide electrical power and data connections, remove hazardous gases, and maintain the right temperature range with a nitrogen purge in the boosters until SLS lifts off from the launch pad.

The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program at Kennedy is preparing ground support equipment, including the launch umbilicals, for NASA's deep space exploration missions.

This entry was posted in Ground Systems Development and Operations Program, Journey to Mars, Kennedy, Space Launch System on October 23, 2017 by Linda Herridge.

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Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 2 ч. назад

ARTICLE: Crew Access Arm arrives as SLS Mobile Launcher takes shape - https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/10/crew-access-arm-arrives-sls-mobile-launcher/ ...

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Crew Access Arm arrives as SLS Mobile Launcher takes shape

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http://astronautical.org/events/vonbraun/

Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium

October 24-26, 2017
Huntsville, Alabama

Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust 9 ч. назад

Mark Kirasich: EM-1 crew module powered-on testing going so well, made up for time lost during hurricane shutdown at KSC. #VonBraun

9 ч. назад

Kirasich: EM-1 Orion crew module should be done in February or March next year, await arrival of service module. #vonbraun

9 ч. назад

Kirasich: Expect EM-1 service module to be completed and delivered to KSC in the summer of 2018. #VonBraun

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https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/10/sls-rocket-advancing-but-its-launch-date-may-slip-into-2020/

SLS rocket advancing, but its launch date may slip to 2020

Best case is December 2019, but problems often arise at this stage.
ERIC BERGER - 10/26/2017, 4:45 PM

NASA will soon set a new date for the maiden flight of its massive Space Launch System rocket, which will send the Orion spacecraft on a test flight around the Moon. Previously, this flight had been scheduled for 2018, but NASA officials acknowledged earlier this year that the launch date would slip into 2019.

Now, there is the possibility of further delays, although NASA isn't saying this publicly just yet. On Wednesday, at the Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, a key official said that a 2019 date is still on the table because Marshall Space Flight Center expects to deliver the rocket's core stage to the launch site in Florida by the end of 2018.

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Noting a recent Agency Program Management Council meeting, during which launch dates are decided, Marshall director Todd May said, "2019 is where we think we can get that done." NASA's acting administrator, Robert Lightfoot, should release an official launch date within the next few weeks, May added.

Work to be done

During a NASA safety meeting earlier this month, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel noted that there are three main items on the "critical path" before the SLS rocket can make its maiden launch. First, Marshall must deliver a fully tested core stage—the main liquid hydrogen and oxygen tanks and RS-25 rocket engines. The European Space Agency must also complete and then test the service module to power the Orion spacecraft in deep space. And much work remains to finalize and test software to manage launch systems at Kennedy Space Center.

"This is a critical point," said a member of the advisory board, engineer Donald McErlean. "The SLS continues to advance, and there are challenges that exist that no one would be surprised about in a program as advanced and complex as this. But the work to overcome those challenges is in progress."

For his part, May said this hard work will be the highlight for many engineers at NASA and its hundreds of contractors and subcontractors working to bring the big SLS rocket to the launch pad. "This is the fun part," May said Wednesday. "It's the hard part, but it's also the really fun part for the team."

"Risk informed" date

Recently, the managing editor of the NASASpaceFlight.com, Chris Bergin, suggested that NASA managers are deciding between a "best case" launch date of December 2019 for the SLS rocket and a "risk informed" date in the second quarter of 2020. Bergin is a reliable source of inside information about NASA, and sources subsequently confirmed this information to Ars.

It is physically possible for NASA to make a launch date in 2019, but historically, things can (and often do) go wrong in the assembly and testing of major launch systems. While it is possible to beat the odds or resolve problems quickly, there is no guarantee that will happen between now and a 2019 launch date.

The issue now confronting NASA's acting administrator, Robert Lightfoot, is whether to set a more politically palatable launch date in 2019 knowing that it could easily slip into 2020. Moreover, should Lightfoot issue a public launch date of 2020, it would release the pressure now on NASA and its contractors, allowing managers to relax and guaranteeing an earlier date is not reached. Therefore, the smart money is on a launch date in 2019, with an eventual slip into 2020.

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Квартал проходит - и срок запуска сдвигается ещё на квартал 

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http://spacenews.com/decision-on-em-1-launch-date-still-pending/

Decision on EM-1 launch date still pending
by Jeff Foust — October 26, 2017

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — NASA is still up to a month away fr om setting a new target launch date for the first flight of the Space Launch System, but agency officials said they still expected it to take place in 2019.

NASA has not set a new date for Exploration Mission (EM) 1, which will launch an uncrewed Orion spacecraft on a test flight into lunar orbit and back, since announcing in May that it would delay the flight to 2019 after deciding not to put a crew on the mission.

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NASA managers said it could take up to a month before finalizing a new target launch date for EM-1. Credit: NASA

In September, the agency said in a statement that it would announce a new target date for EM-1 in October, citing the need to account for a range of issues, including progress on the European-built Orion service module and shutdowns at NASA centers from hurricanes in August and September.

However, an update in October is increasingly unlikely. "Within a few weeks, I think [NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot] intends to codify whatever that date is going to be," Todd May, director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, said in remarks at the American Astronautical Society's Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium here Oct. 25.

Bill Hill, deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development at NASA, offered a similar assessment. "Probably in the next month, maybe sooner," he said in an interview.

During a panel discussion at the conference, Hill said two key elements of the EM-1, delivery of the Orion service module and completion of the core stage of the SLS, were driving the schedule for the mission. "Those are our two critical paths right now, and they're kind of neck-and-neck for getting to a launch date," he said.

The service module, being built by Airbus Defence and Space in Bremen, Germany, is in advanced phases of assembly, according to Mark Kirasich, NASA's Orion program manager. The last components of the module should be in plance by March or April next year. He expected the service module to be delivered to the Kennedy Space Center "some time in the summer of next year" to be integrated with the crew module already there.

The SLS core stage has suffered welding problems that have slowed its construction. "It's our big new development," said John Honeycutt, NASA SLS program manager. The flight core stage will be completed next year while pathfinder units undergo testing.

"The big milestone for the public is when that core stage gets integrated and rolled out of the factory" at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and is shipped to the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for testing, he said. "We're working to a scheduled today that shows that we get the core stage out of the factory in December 2018."

Those schedules would allow for an EM-1 launch in 2019, agency officials said. "2019 is wh ere we think we can that done," May said when asked when he thought the EM-1 launch would take place.

He was not more specific, but if NASA is able to maintain a 2019 launch for EM-1, it likely would be late in the year. NASA notified Congress in June that its estimated launch date for EM-1 was no earlier than October 2019, according to an Oct. 19 report by the Government Accountability Office.

Program managers, though, warned of the potential of additional problems that may crop up as the agency goes through the development and testing process of SLS and Orion, and associated ground systems at KSC, for the first time.

"We have learned that first-time events in manufacturing create challenges for us," Honeycutt said. "When we get to do them a second time, we usually do pretty good."

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Inside KSC! for Oct. 27, 2017

NASAKennedy

Опубликовано: 27 окт. 2017 г.

The heat shield for the Orion crew module was on the move this week inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Facility at Kennedy Space Center. At nearby Port Canaveral, a variety of business and government exhibitors gathered for the Kennedy Space Center Business Opportunities Expo.

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