Orion mission in a few weeks..

FRR Gives “Go” For Flight Test While Teams Prep for Recovery

NASA and Lockheed Martin completed the Flight Readiness Review (FRR) for Orion’s upcoming flight test Dec. 4, giving a “go” Thursday afternoon to proceed. The FRR is a rigorous assessment of the spacecraft, its systems, mission operations and support functions needed to successfully complete Orion’s first voyage to space.

Meanwhile, farther west, the NASA, U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin team that will recover Orion when it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean about 600 miles southwest of San Diego continues preparing the necessary equipment. At Naval Base San Diego, two Navy ships, the USS Anchorage and the USNS Salvor, have been outfitted with the necessary tools and equipment needed to return Orion to land after the flight test.

Orion Batteries Installed, Live Sky Test Complete

The teams working to ready Orion for its flight test on Dec. 4 are making progress preparing the spacecraft for its first trip to space. At Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, engineers installed Orion’s batteries today, completing a critical step in the final preparations process. Because the spacecraft’s batteries have a limited lifespan, they are installed as close to launch as possible. On Wednesday, engineers also completed testing the communications links between the Orion spacecraft and the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) system in an evaluation known as a live sky test. NASA’s TDRS network will be used to send commands to Orion during the flight test and receive data from the spacecraft.

Ahead of Orion’s voyage, NASA is also sharing information about different elements of Orion and the flight test. The flight test will examine all sorts of systems on the spacecraft during its uncrewed test, including the heatshield. The vital armor protecting against searing hot plasma as the spacecraft enters Earth’s atmosphere, the heatshield for this test is expected to experience temperatures around 4,000 degrees F as Orion enters the atmosphere at 20,000 mph. The speed will help engineers evaluate how Orion endures returning from deep space destinations in the future when astronauts are on board.

Orion Flight Test – The Basics

Mission: Orion Flight Test
Launch Date: Dec. 4, 2014
Launch Time: 7:05 a.m. EST
Launch Window: 2 hours, 39 minutes
Launch Site: Space Launch Complex 37,
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
Splashdown (if launched at start of window): 11:29 a.m. EST

Mission highlights: Orion will lift off aboard a Delta IV Heavy rocket to perform the first flight test in space of the spacecraft that is being designed to carry astronauts on exploration missions into deep space. Orion will fly this mission without astronauts and will orbit the Earth twice reaching about 3,600 miles above the planet, 15 times higher than the International Space Station.

The spacecraft will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at close to 20,000 mph and the heat shield will be tested against plasma that is 4,000 degrees F. Orion is to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California where it will be recovered by NASA and U.S. Navy teams.