[ad_1]
At the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Lockheed Martin technicians completed the construction of Orion's first capsule structure. An integral part of NASA's Exploration Mission 2, the capsule is designed to transport humans beyond the low Earth orbit.
Credit: NASA
Technicians have recently completed the construction of a lightweight capsule designed to bring astronauts back to the moon.
The capsule, also known as the pressure vessel, is part of NASA's Orion 2 exploration mission (EM-2). NASA plans to send crewed missions in the 2020s to the moon, and the spacecraft's capsule, the Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle, is built to take them there. EM-2 will be Orion's second test flight with NASA's space launch system rocket and the first flight test with a crew.
According to a recent statement by Lockheed Martin, the shipbuilder for NASA, the technicians welded seven large pieces of aluminum alloy in the last seven months to produce the capsule.
Lockheed Martin has always had a significant presence in the aerospace, from the first transcontinental flights to NASA's current satellite and spacecraft missions. The company also produces weapons and, according to its website, the majority of Lockheed Martin's activities are with the US Department of Defense and other US federal agencies.
The vessel, according to the statement of the contractor, is designed to transport a crew safely in deep space beyond the near Earth orbit.
On August 24, the EM-2 capsule arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Representatives of Lockheed Martin said the vehicle traveled by land from New Orleans, where technicians and engineers worked inside the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility. The EM-2 capsule is now located in Neil Armstrong's Operations and Audit Building at the Kennedy Space Center. There, the mission will enter the final assembly phase of the complete spacecraft.
Follow Doris Elin Salazar on Twitter @salazar_elin. follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
[ad_2]
Source link
