Lockheed Martin speeds up assembly of Orion capsules that will bring astronauts back to the moon

The assembly of the Orion capsules that will bring astronauts back to the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program is gaining momentum as the first test flights approach, prompting spacecraft builder Lockheed Martin to take over an old facility in the space camp to expand and modernize production.

The new Spacecraft Test, Assembly and Resource Center (STAR), dedicated Thursday, will be used to assemble Orion components which, so far, have mostly been built in the Neil Operations and Control building. Armstrong from the nearby Kennedy Space Center.

The STAR facility will use state-of-the-art cloud-based computer systems allowing managers and engineers at each job site to access the same shared databases for real-time collaboration, including the use of virtual reality. in assembly tasks.

“It’s a way to automate the flow of information and the dynamic use of that information across the spectrum,” Rick Ambrose, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space, said in an interview. “Let’s say they need an engineer in Denver (who) could design (a harness). He would then come in electronically and actually control the machine that starts producing it in the STAR Center.”

Instead of a large-scale robotic assembly line, “we are using augmented reality and virtual reality,” he said. “So you will see that some of our technicians will have helmets, they will actually have instructions inside the helmet and it will project onto the Orion Artemis vehicle where to go to connect a connector or put a bolt or how you go to. through this procedure. “

“Everything tries to error-proof and error-proof everything we do.”

Lockheed Martin spent 18 months and nearly $ 20 million acquiring and modifying a 55,000 square foot building just outside the Kennedy Space Center that once housed the Astronaut Training Experience tourist attraction and before that, a center Educational Space Camp.

The first Artemis capsule is complete and waiting to be attached to a space launch system rocket being assembled, or “stacked,” in NASA’s cavernous vehicle assembly building. The agency is preparing the heavy rocket for its inaugural launch later this year, propelling the Orion capsule on an unmanned test flight around the moon.

“We’re ready to fly,” Ambrose said. “We just need a ride.”

A second Orion currently under construction in the Operations and Checkout building is expected to launch by 2023, sending four astronauts on a test flight – Artemis 2 – beyond the moon and back.

Lockheed Martin is working on the third Artemis Orion for the program’s first moon landing mission, as well as two follow-up vehicles, under a $ 2.7 billion contract with NASA. A $ 1.9 billion contract will cover three more spacecraft and the company has options for up to six more on top of that.

All Orion capsules will be assembled in the operations and cash building, but the heat shield, propulsion components and a wide variety of other subsystems will be produced at the STAR center.

“Orion is one of our flagship digital transformation products,” said Ambrose. “We carry out the digital (modeling) of the entire vehicle down to the finite elements. And we have this setup, so if there is a problem when you go out into space, we can quickly fix any kind of problem that you can see. “

While this is not a substitute for pre-flight practice testing, “what we’re trying to do is streamline it, be more efficient for NASA, reduce cycle times.”

“You have a dataset, it’s a real set that everyone is operating on so they don’t make mistakes,” he said. “We try to test everything we do.”