Tag Archives: Orion

Vice President Mike Pence said during a National Space Council meeting that NASA is on track towards Artemis, the space agency's upcoming Moon exploration mission, Space News reported Tuesday. 

NASA conducted a static fire test on Aug. 5 for the Orion's service module in a move to validate the performance of various propellant platforms, engine systems and related subsystems. The Orion's service module is built to provide the spacecraft's crew with power, in-space maneuvering capabilities and life support systems, NASA said Tuesday.

Lisa Watson-Morgan, a three-decade NASA veteran, has been appointed manager of a program to facilitate the development of a lunar lander to support manned missions to the moon by 2024 as part of the space agency’s Artemis program. NASA said Monday that Watson-Morgan will oversee the development and testing of landing platforms and manage the integration of such systems with the Orion crew vehicle as part of her duties as Human Landing System program manager.

Jim Bridenstine, an administrator at NASA, said the agency is working to validate potential costs for the Artemis crewed lunar exploration mission, Space News reported Wednesday. Bridenstine noted that the mission will cost between $20B to $30B and expenses may reach below the said range depending on the amount of contributions from commercial firms.

In support of NASA, Jacobs has completed a full-stress flight test of the Orion spacecraft’s Launch Abort System (LAS) amd verified that the system can steer the spacecraft and astronauts aboard to safety in an emergency, the company reported Tuesday. 

NASA and Boeing have assembled 80 percent of the core stage of the Space Launch System rocket to bring the Orion spacecraft to the moon as part of the Artemis 1 mission. The agency said Monday that the milestone comes after crews connected the hydrogen fuel tank to the SLS core stage’s upper part, which consists of the intertank, liquid oxygen propellant tank and the forward skirt housing the rocket’s flight computers.

NASA completed setting up the test vehicle for the demonstration of the abort system of its Orion spacecraft. The space agency will assess the system’s performance on July 2 at Cape Canaveral in Florida, NASASpaceFlight.com, reported Friday. The Ascent Abort-2 test will be the second and last for the Launch Abort System on the Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft. NASA delivered the system's test booster to the launch pad in April, followed by the test article and the Orion Crew Module in May. 

NASA Administrator and 2019 Wash100 Award winner Jim Bridenstine testified during a Senate hearing that the agency plans to use a commercial rocket to launch the Orion crew capsule for a three-week mission to the Moon, The Verge reported Wednesday. Exploration Mission 1 was intended to be the debut launch of NASA’s Space Launch System, but has been continually delayed and was recently scheduled for a June 2020 launch.

NASA will receive $21.5B in fiscal year 2019 funds under an appropriations package that President Trump signed into law Friday, SpaceNews reported Sunday. The proposed appropriations for the agency reflect an increase of $1.6B over the administration’s original budget request.

NASA is set to conduct the last in a series of tests to qualify the use of the Orion spacecraft’s parachute system for missions to the moon and other outer space locations. The eighth and final test of Orion's parachute system will take place on Sept. 12 at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., the space agency said Friday.