Orion Program Update:Gateway Milestones

On 5 January 2023,NASA announced that technicians at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility,New Orleans,had finished welding the pressure vessel,or backbone,of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV),or capsule, for the Artemis IV mission,the first crewed mission to the Gateway lunar space station.Gateway's two initial components,the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) and the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) are being designed and constructed by Northrop Grumman and Maxar Technologies,respectively.Earlier,on 3 January,a new Gateway mockup was delivered to NASA Kennedy Space Center,to facilitate astronaut training on HALO systems.Gateway will be the most distant space station ever built,flying in a near-rectilinear lunar orbit,so crews will need extensive training on its operations.* The Co-manifested Launch Vehicle (CLV),referring to the HALO and the PPE,will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at KSC Launch Complex 39A no earlier than November 2024.Future Gateway modules will include the European Space Agency (ESA)/Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) International Habitation module (I-HAB),which will increase the station's habitability capacity from its initial 30 days up to 60 days;the ESA ESPRIT-Refueler;and further logistics modules.The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) will provide the Gateway External Robotics System (GERS) called Canadarm3.Indeed,one of the four Artemis IV astronauts will be a Canadian.The Blue Origin Human Landing System (HLS) that will potentially transport astronauts on Gateway to the lunar surface is being co-developed by Blue Origin,Northrop Grumman,Lockheed Martin and The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory;while the SpaceX Starship has been selected to transport astronauts to the lunar surface for NASA'S initial lunar landing of the Artemis III return to the moon mission.NASA will award future lunar landing contracts on a competitive basis after Artemis III.* Gateway will provide unique science capabilities,allowing extended views of Earth,Sun,Moon and space not possible from Earth's surface or Low Earth Orbit (LEO).Two of the first three experiments for Gateway will be attached to the station's exterior.They will monitor the Sun's radiation environment and space weather,respectively;while a third experiment will fly inside HALO to study radiation shielding effects and improve radiation physics models for cancer,cardiovascular and central nervous system effects,helping assess crew risk on deep space exploration missions.At the same time,International Space Station missions will continue to be flown.* In HALO,there are accomodations for storing food,water,tools and experiments,plus space for exercise and sleep.It also provides a safe and healthy atmosphere,regulating proper rates of oxygen and nitrogen,while filtering the air for contaminent removal.ESA is providing the HALO Lunar Communication System (HLCS).* The Gateway will be a staging point for sustained lunar exploration and extensibility towards long-term lunar and solar system exploration.HALO itself is 3 meters/9.84 feet in diameter and has three docking ports.It features Time-Triggered Ethernet (TTE) for seamless integration of modules,payloads and subsystem components.* Lockheed Martin (LMT),Maxar Technologies Inc (MAXR), Northrop Grumman (NOC)

Orion Program Update-what are they working on and when will it launch?

As far as NASA and partner ESA are concerned,it's full speed ahead for the Orion Program-not just for test flight Exploration Mission-1,but even for EM-2,the first crewed mission of Orion.The Orion Crew Module is currently being processed for EM-1,the first integrated mission of Orion and the new Space Launch System rocket,the most powerful rocket ever built.The capsule has been in the clean room of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center,Florida,where critical systems such as propellant lines,Environmental Control and life support systems are being installed.In the building's high bay,a number of test stands,processing bays and other hardware have been laid out.Several Orion components such as Thermal Protection Panels are in various stages of processing there,NASA said.
The Orion Crew Module will be launched from Pad 39B in 2019 on EM-1.A three-week flight will take it some 40,000 miles beyond the Moon into cislunar space,the farthest a human-rated spacecraft has ever flown.After a fiery re-entry,it will splash down in the Pacific.*
Meanwhile,in Europe the European Space Agency Orion Service Module is being processed for EM-1 and will be shipped to KSC in 2018.Additionally,the second ESA OSM,for EM-2,is being constructed by ESA contractor Thales Alenia in Turin,Italy.The ESA OSMs provide power,propulsion,cooling,water and oxygen to the Crew Module.*
The purpose of the Exploration Missions is to build and test the systems needed for the challenging deep space missions to the Mars system and beyond in the 2030s,in concert with NASA's domestic and international partners.The vision taking shape involves constructing the Deep Space Gateway,a small space station that will facilitate further crewed and robotic cislunar missions on the way to Mars.There may be about five crewed lunar landing missions in the 2020s as well as robotic counterparts,evaluating commercial prospects on the Moon as well as increasing the scientific knowledge base about our only natural satellite,while preparing for longer duration space flight more independent of Earth.*
The other major component of Orion,the Space Launch System,has been making similar progress.According to John Honeycutt,SLS Program Manager at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,Alabama:
This year,the SLS team has constructed major parts of the rocket,such as the in-space stage,which is already at NASA's KSC in Florida;the four RS-25 engines;core stage structures;and solid rocket booster segments.The rocket is happening now.The SLS has made great progress and has an exciting year ahead as NASA conducts critical structure tests at Marshall,assembles the core stage and the RS-25 engines at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility,New Orleans,and delivers more hardware to the launch pad at Kennedy.                              

NASA Prepares for New Horizon's Next Misson - occultation observation raises possibilities

Having flown by Pluto in 2015,NASA'S New Horizons spacecraft is now well beyond the dwarf planet on its journey to another Kuiper Belt Object (KBO),a small body of an unknown nature called KBO MU69.NH is planned to execute a flyby of it on 1 January 2019,setting a record for the most distant celestial object ever explored in a flyby.
The Kuiper Belt is a region of the solar system rich in celestial objects believed to be from the early days of our system's formation,such as dwarf planets;thousands of icy bodies more than 62 miles/100 km across;and an estimated at least one trillion comets.*
NASA is striving to learn all it can about MU69 before NH reaches it,in order ensure it will not collide with any debris or ring systems which may be in this unexplored region.Data from the Hubble Space Telescope and ESA Gaia satellite are being used to calculate where MU69 will cast its faint shadow on the Earth's surface as it passes in front of a star (an occultation event).So far,there have been three such events monitored by NASA and collaborating observers and technicians to prepare for the New Horizons flyby.
One of the events was on 3 June 2017,when more than 50 mission team members and collaborators set up mobile telescopes in South Africa and Argentina in an effort to capture images of MU69's shadow speeding over the Earth for two seconds.Other observations were made by HST and the Gaia space observatory.In the event,the telescopes took more than 100,000 photos of the occultation that can help ascertain the nature of MU69's environment.Indeed,valuable and surprising insights were obtained,mission team members said.
New Horizons science team leader Mark Buie of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder,Colorado noted that:
These data show that MU69 might not be as dark or as large as some expected.
Principle investigator at the SWRI Alan Stern added:
The fact that we accomplished the occult observations from every planned observing site,but didn't detect the object itself,likely means that either MU69 is highly reflective and smaller than some expected,or it may be a binary,or even a swarm of smaller bodies left over from the time when planets in our solar system formed.*
Occultation observations of MU 69 have also been made on 10 July 2017 by the NASA/German Aerospace Centre SOFIA flying infrared observatory,a converted Boeing 747 with a 2.5 meter telescope that allows for IR study above 99% of the atmosphere's water vapour.That data is currently being analysed.A second mobile telescope round was carried out on 17 July 2017 in Southern Argentina,with the HST also participating.

Orion Rising:What To Expect in 2017 and Beyond From the Deep Space Spacecraft

At this writing,the constellation Orion has begun rising in the eastern sky shortly after nightfall,pleasing those both with and without telescopes.At the same time,its namesake spacecraft is steadily being prepared for its 2018 launch on Exploration Mission-1,the first unmanned,integrated test of the complete Orion deep space exploration system,including the Crew module,ESA Service Module and Space Launch System rocket,in a high orbit around the Moon.These preparations will continue throughout the new year,bringing the first manned,record-breaking test of Orion,Exploration Mission-2,ever closer - as soon as 2021.At that point,NASA plans one launch a year of Orion in pursuit of its deep space objectives.
If 2016 was a time for integrating structural elements into the spacecraft,and then critical systems such as avionics components and propulsion tubing,next year will unfold as:
1.In spring 2017,computers in the Crew Module for EM-1 will be turned on for the first time to verify that the spacecraft can route power and send commands in an integrated test to verify Orion's systems are connected and responding appropriately.
2.The ESA Orion Service Module that will propel and power Orion will be shipped to Kennedy Space Center after structural and systems work is finished up at Airbus Defence & Space in Bremen,Germany.
3.The heat shield will be secured onto the Crew Module in summer,and then the Crew and Service Modules will be stacked one on top of the other.In early 2018,this stack will be shipped to NASA Glenn Plum Brook Station,Ohio,where it will undergo tests in the dynamics of launch and the harsh environment of deep space flight.
4.Several parachute tests will take place over the Arizona desert to verify the safety of recovery operations.
5.Human factors tests such as a legibility test will help evaluate how humans interact with the new spacecraft.
6.Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin will carry out its own series of stress tests at its Denver facility.*
Even as these tests for EM-1 go on,construction work for the EM-2 Crew Module will begin in 2017.
Lockheed Martin (LMT)