Orion spacecraft material and safety procedures prepared for the mission of exploration 1

NASA organized an event in front of the United States. John P Murtha presents his Orion recovery operations. Photo Credit: Alex Ustick / SpaceFlight Insider

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – The European Space Agency (ESA) keeps its promises. At least, that may be what some NASA members are currently thinking. ESA's contribution to the US Space Agency's inaugural flight of combining the space launch system and the Orion spacecraft (the first Orion launched in 2014 during Exploration Flight Test 1) has arrived. But this is not the only Orion event that has occurred recently.

Landing at Space Coast Florida on Tuesday, November 6, 2018, after a flight from Germany, the service module (SM) of the second Orion flight and the first of the agency's massive gigantic rocket , the Space Launch System (SLS)) – is ready to be associated with the crew module of the spacecraft for its planned flight for the Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1) in 2020.

While Orion is built by the satellite master builder, Lockheed Martin, the SM was built by Airbus and is based on ESA's automated transfer vehicle. The collaboration of NASA and ESA in the International Space Station program contributed to the implementation of this new initiative.

The Airbus team poses in front of the European-built service module for NASA's Orion satellite before sending it from Germany to the Kennedy Space Center. Photo credit: Rad Sinyak / NASA

"We have a solid foundation of cooperation with ESA via the partnership between the International Space Station and the arrival of the service module means that our international collaboration also extends to our efforts to improve the quality of service. human exploration in the deep space, "said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's assistant administrator for human resources. Exploration and Operations.

With the SM at KSC, it will now be tested and integrated with the rest of the Orion probe. The SM is responsible for managing Orion's "maneuvers in space" during the mission. On a larger scale, this will also trigger the "punch" needed to send Orion into (and out of) lunar orbit.

"Our teams have worked together extremely hard to develop a service module that will do missions on the Moon and beyond reality," said Mark Kirasich, NASA's Orion Program Manager. "It is a great achievement for ESA and Airbus to have completed the development work of the module and to have achieved this milestone in delivery."

The service module is made up of some 20,000 components, many of which provide the complete spacecraft with the power needed to achieve its objectives. The energy related elements include four solar panels and an orbital maneuvering system motor. Some of its elements, however, do not concern the production of energy and propulsion. The SM is also the part of Orion that supplies air and water to the crews who will make the first flights of the spacecraft.

Now at KSC, the engineers will begin the functional testing process to ensure that the SM is ready to be integrated into the Orion Crew Module (CM). Once the two components merged, the satellite will be sent to NASA's Glenn Research Center Plum Brook station in Ohio in 2019. Once there, two months of additional testing in a vacuum chamber will take place. This will be done to validate that the EM-1 Orion is ready to handle the hostile space environment. After having proved himself, he will be sent back to Kennedy to be prepared.

While the EM-1 Orion will fly without an astronaut on board, it will be the first crewed spacecraft to venture into the Moon's sphere of influence in nearly half a century (the last being the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972). During the EM-1, NASA will ensure that Orion is protected as much as possible so that the agency can recover important data for the safety of the crew on the EM. -2. To obtain this information, Orion will travel approximately 64,374 kilometers. past the moon.

An Orion model used to train recovery personnel is exposed to the media. Photo Credit: Alex Ustick / SpaceFlight Insider

At the same time, on the other side of the United States, the US Navy was training to recover Orion from the Pacific Ocean after the shuttle failed at the end of its mission. This training and these tests take place from the end of October to the beginning of November.

NASA showed progress on Wednesday, Nov. 7, at Pier 6 at the San Diego Naval Station. The occasion was an opportunity to emphasize that not all aspects of the EM-1 relate to equipment, astronauts or engineers. In this case, it was a joint effort by NASA, the US Navy and others …Recovery test in progress 7.

"On behalf of the 400 sailors and seamen of the United States John P Murtha, I would like to say what an honor and privilege to work with NASA in recent months and to have peaked in our operations at sea in recent days, "said Captain Anthony Roach, commander in charge of the United States John P. Murtha I said.

On November 1, 2018, US USS John P. Murtha retrieved a test version of the Orion capsule in the Pacific Ocean. Photo credit: Tony Gray / NASA

For those familiar with the challenges of manned spaceflight, these training sessions are essential.

"I watched teams, NASA and Navy teams, and I saw them working, sometimes with difficulty, to find a way to do all that. At the end of this exercise, it was well-oiled machines. They worked really well together in various states of the sea and in day and night operations. I have no doubt that when it will be time to fly the Orion capsule, and that it comes back from its lunar orbit, and that it splashes off the coast of San Diego, we can get it out the crew and get the capsule. recovered, "said NASA veteran astronaut Don Pettit.

Although not a stolen version of Orion, this model helps those tasked with recovering the space shuttle from the ocean to learn how to properly perform their tasks.

"It's just a model, it does not even open, we put decals so we can train as efficiently as possible," said Melissa Jones, NASA's director for landing and recovery. SpaceFlight Insider. "After completing the EM-1, the unprepared test flight, we developed another trainer with an interior that will allow us to train with the astronauts. This will be after EM-1 in preparation for EM-2. "

There are two recovery methods, the "well bridge recovery" method and the "open water recovery" method. Both methods have their own specialized set of ground support equipment. While the open water method uses inflatable structures and a stabilizer collar (to help mitigate the impact of spacecraft motion), the well bridge method would allow the spacecraft to enter the vessel. recovery through an opening at the sea line.

Video provided by NASA

Tagged: EM-1 EM-2 Initiatives Stories from Kennedy Space Center of ESA Lockheed-Martin NASA Orion US Navy Space Launch System US.S.S. John P. Murtha

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Jason Rhian

Jason Rhian spent several years honing his skills doing internships with NASA, the National Space Society and other organizations. He has provided content to sites such as: Aviation Week & Space Technology, Space.com, The Mars Society and Universe Today.