Orion/Artemis Programs Update:Orion Capsule and European Service Module for Artemis 1 Mission Completed

The Orion crew module for the uncrewed Artemis 1 Mission slated for 2020 has been completed,Vice President Mike Pence announced on 20 July 2019.Speaking at the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center,Florida,Mr. Pence was joined by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis,NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine,Apollo 11 Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin,KSC Director Robert Cabana,Lockheed Martin CEO Marilyn Hewson,and Rick Armstrong,son of the late Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong.*
Looking ahead:
1.Since being shipped in its bare bones pressure vessel form from the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans,the capsule has been integrated with thousands of parts and undergone rigorous testing of its flight systems.The European Service Module for Artemis 1 has also been completed.It will provide power,propulsion,water and oxygen for the Artemis Moon missions.The ESM is a product of Airbus Space and Defence in Bremen,Germany.Engineers have begun the process of joining the crew module to the service module,with teams connecting power and fluid lines to complete hardware attachment.
2.Next,the conjoined modules will be shipped via the cavernous Guppy aircraft to NASA Plum Brook Station in Sandusky,Ohio for testing to verify that the partial stack can survive the challenging conditions of deep spaceflight.
3.Pending successful completeion of the Plum Brook tests,the partial stack will be returned to KSC for final processing and inspection.Then it will be fueled and transported to the monumental Vehicle Assembly Building for integration with the new Space Launch System rocket.Finally,the complete stack will be rolled out on the crawler transporter to Launch Complex 39B to await launch.*
Engineers at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,Alabama are more than 50% through their evaluation of the SLS for deep space missions.*
The crewed Artemis 2 Mission is scheduled for 2022 and is to set the distance record for crewed spaceflight,reaching a high lunar orbit 40,000 miles from the Moon.*
Lockheed Martin (LMT)

Orion Program Update:ESM Construction at Full Speed in Germany;Capsule Software and Display Mini-Sim;Prepping for AA-2

Here is some of the Orion Program work being carried out as the launch of the uncrewed test Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) rapidly draws near (as early as December 2019) and the first crewed mission,EM-2,is not too far over the horizon (2023):
At the Airbus Defence & Space clean room in Bremen,Germany,the Orbital Manoeuvering System engine for EM-1's European Service Module (ESM) has been mated to the ESM.The OMS engine is the main engine for getting the Orion spacecraft into deep space.It is the 33rd and last engine for the ESM.The others include 8 auxiliary thrusters and 24 attitude control thrusters.
The first ESM is on a full-rate production schedule,as Airbus technicians work in shifts 24 hours a day to meet the goal of shipping it to the US this summer.
Also in Bremen,the structure of the second ESM,to be used for EM-2,the first crewed Orion mission that will take humans farther into outer space than ever before,some 40,000 miles beyond the Moon,has arrived.Technicians have begun installing its almost 7.5 miles of cables;fuel;water;air tanks;computers;engines;and so on that support the crew module and up to four crew members.
The ESM also protects the spacecraft from launch energy and vibrations from the new Space Launch System rocket;moreover,it shields the crew from micrometeoroids and space debris.*
Congratulations to the ESM Assembly,Integration &Test team from Airbus,ArianeGroup and NASA for their excellent work.*
Meanwhile,the Orion Rapid Prototype Lab (RPL) team of astronauts and flight controllers designed and executed complex,innovative simulations of newly prototyped Orion crew on-orbit burn display formats and electronic procedures.They thus gained valuable experience using the displays and procedures in a more realistic scenario for the crew members and ground controllers,NASA said.This will help validate or identify areas needing updates so key changes can be made more expeditiously and  economically in the software development cycle.
Also on the team for this fifth in a series of mini-sims were members from Aerospace Applications North America;Barrios Technology;NASA Ames Research Center;and interns from NASA and Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies Inc.*
At NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans,Louisiana,Lockheed Martin technicians completed the forward structure to cone weld on the EM-2 crew module pressure vessel.The Orion Program team members at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston from LMT and NASA continued outfitting the Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2) capsule for its critical flight test at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station,Florida in April 2019.*