Orion: April 2009 Archives

credit NASA/Lockheed Martin / caption: Will this be seen in 2020?

Acting NASA administrator Christopher Scolese made some interesting remarks on 29 April at the Congressional appropriations hearing that Hyperbola thinks could see another human spaceflight gap for the USA at the end of the next decade

credit NASA / caption: now with a maximum of four crew it would seem

NASA's image of the day, its Orion crew exploration vehicle mock up is in the Atlantic ocean, all at sea, and bobbing around with little or no particular direction

The balloons on top are for up righting the capsules, the same system was used for the Apollo programme's command module

Well done to Aviation Week and Space Technology space editor Frank Morring for this scoop, with Constellation programme manager Jeff Hanley saying that for mass reduction reasons two of the Orion crew exploration vehicle's planned six seats are being pulled!

Flight had already requested an interview about Orion for this Friday, hopefully more juicy facts will be coming Hyperbola's way then

But it is not because Florida Today's The Flame Trench blog has not done its journalism properly, no, its because NASA's public affairs office got it wrong - well everybody makes mistakes I guess

NASA has told Hyperbola that The Flame Trench's article about the Aerospace Corporation Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) study on EELV suitability for launching the Orion crew exploration vehicle is wrong when it's first sentence says:

Senior NASA managers are reviewing an independent analysis

because:

Under evaluation was not accurate re: the Aerospace report. I learned later that it is in fact not finished and we can't discuss it further at this point.

Hyperbola wanted to put this information into the public domain because searching for reports about this study this blog has not uncovered any correct articles, only blogosphere postings that propagate this initial error (Yes very community minded I know)

The statement that the study is not finished also raises questions about the validity of the NASASpaceflight.com (NSF) article that kicked off this whole situation

credit Lockheed Martin / caption: the process will take three months

NEW ORLEANS, LA, April 20th, 2009 -- Lockheed Martin has begun its first friction stir weld process on an Orion crew module Ground Test Article at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La.

This ground test article will serve as a production pathfinder to validate the flight vehicle production processes and tools. When completed, this first full-sized, flight-like crew module will be tested on the ground in equivalent flight-like environments, including static vibration, acoustics and water landing loads. Results will be used to correlate sizing models for all subsystems on the vehicle

Read the full press release and see more pictures here

A press release about NASA's Maximum Launch Abort System test launch can be expected in the next two weeks. Originally scheduled for a 14-month development period and a September 2008 launch test, that was put back to no earlier than 27 March this year and today NASA told Hyperbola:

Latest projection is mid-to-late May.  Once it gets out of the processing building it is in now, project managers will be able to set a target date.  We plan to issue a media announcement at that point, which is expected to be about two weeks prior to test.

NASA's Engineering and Safety Center has been designing and developing this alternate vehicle concept as "risk mitigation for the Orion crew exploration vehicle launch abort system concept" since 2007

Hyperbola videos can be watched on its YouTube channel Flighthyperbola and the videos of channels Flighthyperbola subscribes too

credit NASA / caption: 24 July 1969, the Apollo 11 command module up righting balloons can be clearly seen

It looks like NASA's Orion crew exploration vehicle is going to have even more similarities with the space agency's Apollo command module. The Orion project office tells Hyperbola that come 2015 (take your pick on Orion-Ares crewed flight dates) the sea landing of the six crew International Space Station mission spacecraft will have balloons to ensure it can right itself if it flips upside down in the swell. NASA says

The system is early in design but here is the baseline: 

Crew Module Up righting System consists of:

-        3-52" up righting airbags integrated in the forward bay

-        Stored gas inflation system

-        24 hour up righting capability

NASA announced yesterday that the reformulation of the Apollo programme's Avcoat has been selected for its Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV)

Flight predicted this in its 10 March article about the heat shield when an announcement was expected that month. Instead NASA announced the decision on 7 April

The decision, 14-months late, brings to an end a major question about an important mass driver for the CEV. Delayed by 10-months the Orion's preliminary design review is now more likely to go ahead later this year - the Obama administration's choice for NASA administrator likely to come so late that the individual concerned will not be in place to do anything to stop it

Avco, long since bought by Textron Systems, did propose its Apollo heat shield material for Shuttle but its abative technology lost out to the reusable ceramic tiles the orbiter's use today

And in a twist to the Constellation programme story the ceramic tiles of PICA have lost out to Avcoat for Orion

NASA is offering interviews about the Avcoat selection so expect more from Flight and Hyperbola in the near future