The Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II mission is nearing closing meeting and testing at prime contractor Lockheed Martin’s Kennedy House Heart (KSC) manufacturing facility. After a closing standalone check on the Orion crew module (CM), it’s anticipated to be mated to the service module (SM) in mid-September. If there aren’t any issues within the remaining months of testing, Lockheed Martin believes they will full their work by the tip of April subsequent yr.
NASA is planning Artemis II as a week-and-a-half lengthy, lunar-flyby mission; will probably be the primary crewed check flight for Orion and the House Launch System (SLS) and the four-person astronaut crew not too long ago visited KSC collectively for the primary time to see their spacecraft. With main {hardware} like Orion and the SLS Core Stage not but accomplished, the house company is retaining its late November 2024 launch forecast as a “work to” date, though the tempo of labor is at the moment “a lot of weeks” behind that forecast.
Crew and repair modules scheduled to be mated for flight in September
NASA and Lockheed Martin hosted a media occasion on Aug. 8 within the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout (O&C) Constructing at KSC. Meeting and testing of Orion spacecraft are performed within the excessive bay and low bay of the ability in what known as the economic operations zone (IOZ).
As Lockheed Martin nears the ultimate meeting of the Artemis II spacecraft, the meeting, check, and launch operations workforce are additionally concurrently constructing spacecraft for the 2 missions that may comply with. The crew module and crew module adapter (CMA) units for each Artemis III and Artemis IV had been additionally on show in workstations and check cells distributed all through the IOZ ground.
The four-person Artemis II flight crew was introduced in April and mission-specific coaching started in June. In reality, the media occasion ended up occurring at nearly the identical time the 4 astronauts had been visiting KSC collectively for the primary time to get a primary take a look at their lunar spacecraft. Artemis II is deliberate to be a 10-day lengthy, lunar-flyby check flight and the primary crewed mission for Orion and SLS.
The Artemis II crew exterior the hatch of their crew module on Aug. 7, throughout their first take a look at their house for the mission. (Credit score: NASA/Kim Shiflett)
The ultimate main standalone check for the CM earlier than it is able to mate with the SM is a direct subject acoustic check (DFAT). Lockheed Martin continues working across the clock, on daily basis to get the Artemis II Orion accomplished, and the CM was moved down the IOZ ground to the check space a couple of hours earlier than the media occasion.
“We’re doing every thing in our energy to maintain the schedule the best way that it must be but in addition make sure that on the identical time that we don’t sacrifice what must get finished to construct the spacecraft,” Sarah Malatesta, Techniques Integration and Check Engineer for Lockheed Martin, mentioned throughout the media occasion. “That’s crucial as effectively, it’s not all about schedule, it’s about ensuring that you just’re making the precise technical choices alongside the best way.”
The check simulates launch acoustics that the spacecraft will expertise throughout the launch and mission, and the manufacturing workforce was prepared to choose up work as quickly as potential after the occasion. “We’re chomping on the bit to connect floor cables right now as quickly as media occasion is over,” Malatesta mentioned. “We’re ready on standby to get the hatch opened up once more in order that we are able to get powered up and get into the testing.”
The Artemis II Orion is the third flight spacecraft constructed and is the primary full-up implementation of the {hardware} and software program to assist a four-person crew for as much as 21 days. A lot of the CM life assist and crew programs, similar to crew shows and controls and programs for sustaining and supporting a liveable setting inside, are flying for the primary time on Artemis II and this can be their first acoustic check.
“There are new parts, the shows and controls, and the ECLSS (environmental management and life assist system) parts are new, and so they haven’t been via a DFAT earlier than, not at a automobile stage,” Debbie Korth, Orion Deputy Program Supervisor for NASA, mentioned.
DFAT is predicted to take a couple of days to execute after which the module can be moved again to the CM workstation whereas the check information is analyzed. “We’ll be working that for a few days after which as soon as we’re full with DFAT, we return all the way down to our common workstation,” Malatesta mentioned.
Again within the CM workstation, Malatesta mentioned the spacecraft workforce will end somewhat bit extra outfitting, securely fasten exterior panels, and run a couple of exams to verify the module is able to mate. “We’ll return all the way down to our common workstation, checkout the entire subsystems that we are able to’t checkout whereas we’re down right here, make sure that these are nonetheless working nice,” she mentioned. “As soon as we’ve confirmed that, we’ll be able to stack, and so they’ll work that via September.”
The 2 modules can be connected within the closing meeting and programs testing (FAST) cell, adjoining to the place the DFAT tools was arrange. The Artemis II SM has already been mated to the Spacecraft Adapter cone and that meeting had already made one journey into the cell. After the CM DFAT is full, will probably be moved again into the cell for mating.
The Orion SM, which consists of the European Service Module and CMA, has already gone via its standalone meeting, check, and checkout and is actually prepared for the following part of spacecraft integration and testing. “It is kind of prepared, so what we’re at the moment doing right here is we now have handed over the automobile already to ESA (European House Company) and NASA,” Kai Bergemann, European Service Module Deputy Programme Supervisor for Airbus, mentioned.
The Artemis II Orion service module and Spacecraft Adapter within the O&C Constructing on Aug. 8. (Credit score: Max Evans for NSF)
“It’s no [longer] underneath the possession of Airbus however the subsequent steps are to finalize some sensor integration on the highest and we are going to shut the thermal safety on the aft facet, so the MLI (multi-layer insulation) can be connected within the subsequent weeks after which following that we’re actually able to accommodate the crew module.”
Mid-September is when the multi-month means of integrating the 2 modules is deliberate to start. The modules are bodily bolted collectively and there’s additionally an umbilical that connects all {the electrical}, information, and fluid strains. After these are related, all of the capabilities of the mated spacecraft have to be checked out.
“You must be sure that the entire parts and interfaces between the crew module and the service module are working the best way that they’re speculated to,” Malatesta defined. “We fly the vast majority of the mission stacked, so we have to be sure that the crew module is speaking to the service module appropriately and the best way that we want it to.”
“We do full-scale mission testing, simulations and phasing simulations to be sure that the proper thrusters are firing if you get the proper sensor enter, all of that sort of stuff.”
The ultimate, main standalone checkout of the mated crew and repair modules (CSM), together with the Spacecraft Adapter, is a vacuum check that can be carried out in a newly renovated chamber contained in the O&C Constructing. Korth mentioned the Orion is projected to be prepared to begin the check someday early in 2024 after built-in testing of the mated spacecraft is full.
“If I take a look at the schedule I wish to say the mate takes about three to 4 months to get the entire automobile mated, so it’s early subsequent yr,” she mentioned. Korth mentioned that the vacuum check is predicted to take a lot of weeks; nevertheless, the vacuum testing course of ought to nonetheless take much less time than the testing finished on the Artemis I Orion on the Neil Armstrong Check Facility (previously often known as Plum Brook Station) in Ohio.
The Artemis II crew module is seen positioned in a check cell for the direct subject acoustic check (DFAT) that was deliberate shortly after the Aug. 8 media occasion. (Credit score: Max Evans for NSF)
“The main distinction between the Plum Brook vacuum testing and this one is the Plum Brook testing was truly a thermal-vac check, that is going to be vacuum solely,” Malatesta famous. “It is a a lot shorter check as a result of we don’t must undergo a thermal profile all through.”
“I don’t suppose we now have closing timelines, so I don’t have a precise variety of days or something like that, however we’re engaged on the finalization of all that, what do the timelines seem like, how lengthy does it take to get it into the chamber, all that. It’s a brand-new chamber for us to make use of, clearly it’s been used throughout Apollo, but it surely’s been retrofitted for Orion, so I’m excited.”
Following the vacuum check, at a excessive stage, the spacecraft workforce will once more double-check that Orion stays totally purposeful after elimination from the vacuum chamber earlier than starting closing work earlier than handing over to Exploration Floor Techniques (EGS) for launch processing. EGS will transfer the Orion “quick stack” of the CSM and Spacecraft Adapter to the Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF).
“After we come out we make sure that every thing remains to be working the identical means that it was earlier than we went via a vacuum setting, set up the photo voltaic arrays, and we’re just about there,” Malatesta mentioned. “It is going to return into the FAST cell [first]. We perform a little bit there, carry it again up right here so you possibly can connect photo voltaic arrays after which ship it on its means down the street to the MPPF.”
NASA leaves the launch goal date as-is, however work is at the moment weeks behind
NASA additionally held an Artemis replace media briefing on the KSC Press Web site later within the day on Aug. 8, the primary because the late November 2024 goal date for launch was introduced in early March. NASA Exploration Techniques Improvement Mission Directorate Affiliate Administrator Jim Free mentioned within the briefing that the goal date nonetheless stays unchanged, though work was “a lot of weeks” behind.
Free additionally famous that Orion remains to be the first important path to reaching launch readiness for Artemis II. A mix of price range elements and sure additionally COVID trade impacts within the 2020-2021 time-frame led the company to reaffirm the choice to reuse a number of avionics parts from the Artemis I crew module on Artemis II; this meant that meeting and check of the Artemis II Orion needed to wait till early in 2023 after Artemis I used to be efficiently accomplished to obtain these parts.
The post-flight evaluation evaluate for Artemis I used to be not too long ago accomplished and Free mentioned that open objects from the mission are persevering with to be analyzed. “We checked out a lot of issues which might be open, the heatshield, an electronics field on the service module, and a few of the launch and retention bolts,” he mentioned. “I believe we now have plans ahead with all of these. We nonetheless must get to the foundation trigger earlier than we get to flight rationale.”
The Artemis I crew module in San Diego on Dec. 13, a couple of days after splashdown to efficiently full the primary Artemis mission to the Moon. (Credit score: Jack Beyer for NSF)
In March on the time the late November 2024 goal date was introduced, the forecast was for the crew module and repair module to be able to be mated in June; nevertheless, NASA and Lockheed Martin nonetheless hope to finish the spacecraft and formally hand over to EGS by the tip of April.
“It’s an aggressive schedule, however that’s the aim and we nonetheless have a path to get there,” Korth mentioned. “It’s a inexperienced mild [schedule], issues are going to must go effectively for all these exams.” If the exams are executed on time and nothing must be redone, the vacuum exams would take a lot of weeks to conduct early subsequent yr, with the ultimate stretch of labor for Lockheed Martin working from February via April.
“Now we have a weight and CG (heart of gravity) check and a closing proof and leak check, so there’s different exams that occur after [vacuum testing],” Korth famous. “There’s a bunch of little issues that occur between the February to April time-frame.”
Preliminary schedules projected that EGS would want to obtain Orion round eight months earlier than they’d be able to launch, which offers the time wanted to finish launch preparations. That features a few months to load all of the flight commodities on the spacecraft within the MPPF and a few months to stack the Launch Abort System (LAS) on high of the spacecraft.
On that timeline, if EGS had been to maneuver Orion into the MPPF in late April/early Might, they’d be trying to have Orion able to stack on high of SLS within the Automobile Meeting Constructing (VAB) within the Fall of 2024 for launch readiness on the finish of 2024.
Different main deliverables crucial earlier than Artemis II launch processing can start embody upgrades to Cell Launcher-1 and completion of Core Stage-2.
After it weathered the Artemis I launch and returned to the VAB in December, Cell Launcher-1 (ML-1) was moved to the West Park Web site on the north facet of the Automobile Meeting Constructing in January. Submit-launch repairs and refurbishment of the Cell Launcher (ML) had been accomplished in parallel with modifications to put in and improve programs that can be wanted for crewed launches of Artemis II and III.
Upgrades and modifications had been made each at Launch Pad 39B and to the ML for an emergency egress system that can be utilized by astronauts and personnel to shortly get away from the ML umbilical tower on the pad in case of a hazardous state of affairs with the ML and/or automobile.
As soon as the entire work that may be completed on the West Park Web site is accomplished, the ML-1 can be picked up by CT-2 and rolled out to Pad 39B for verification and validation of the programs upgrades. Free mentioned that the rollout to the pad was at the moment projected for Aug. 16.
Cell Launcher-1 undergoes refurbishment and modifications at KSC’s Launch Complicated 39 West Park Web site, as seen throughout a July NSF flyover. (Credit score: Max Evans for NSF)
The opposite flight {hardware} factor nonetheless in main meeting is the SLS core stage. In March, Core Stage-2 completion was anticipated by July however meeting of the stage on the Michoud Meeting Facility (MAF) in New Orleans nonetheless hasn’t reached the purpose the place the 4 RS-25 engines will be put in. By Might, engine set up wasn’t forecast to begin till July and completion of the stage was projected in late Fall.
One of many points Mr. Free has famous not too long ago was with components which might be assembled into the lengthy, large-diameter liquid oxygen feedlines (additionally referred to as “downcomers”). Mr. Free referred to as the issue “minor” and mentioned that the stage would in all probability ship from the MAF to KSC within the November timeframe.
NASA spokesperson Corinne Beckinger offered an replace on engine set up from the SLS Program in an e-mail: “The 4 RS-25 engines for the Artemis II mission will start set up onto the House Launch System core stage in early September at NASA’s Michoud Meeting Facility in New Orleans.”
The change to the timeline, pushing again the beginning of engine installs, was attributed to a unique difficulty, retesting of a liquid oxygen prevalve. “NASA and its companions proceed to work towards a late fall supply date of the Artemis II core stage to NASA’s Kennedy House Heart,” the SLS Program assertion added.
A lot of the different automobile {hardware} is both full or nearing completion and can be delivered to KSC this yr or early subsequent yr. The ten motor segments for the Strong Rocket Boosters (SRB) have been full and in storage for years in Utah, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage for Artemis II is again in storage at Cape Canaveral House Drive Station after finishing its check and checkout, and the Launch Automobile Stage Adapter is full and able to ship from Marshall House Flight Heart to KSC early subsequent yr.
Closing outfitting of the Orion Stage Adapter at Marshall and closing check and checkout of the SRB aft skirts and ahead assemblies at KSC also needs to be accomplished effectively earlier than they’re wanted for stacking someday subsequent yr.
The schedule introduced in March projected ML-1 to be prepared for Artemis II stacking by the tip of 2023 and the SRB motor segments and exit cones could be transported to KSC forward of that. Automobile stacking for launch begins with the boosters, and that’s nonetheless deliberate to begin in February.
NASA Artemis launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson views the engine part of Core Stage-2 on June 30 on the Michoud Meeting Facility in New Orleans. Beforehand scheduled for July, the stage is now forecast to be able to obtain its 4 RS-25 engines in September. (Credit score: NASA/Michael DeMocker)
A number of “restricted operational life objects” are related to making ready and stacking the automobile, so the goal date for planning won’t have to be up to date till stacking begins subsequent yr. Or it might be left unchanged till later.
Within the media briefing, Mr. Free defined the rationale for sustaining the November 2024 goal date: “It’s this steadiness of pushing onerous however sustaining the precise philosophy of not pushing too onerous, if that is sensible to you,” he mentioned.
“However I believe to us up right here it does, as a result of we nonetheless must press and get our missions on a cadence the place we’re doing the exploration across the Moon and on the floor. It is a nice first step for us however we do have to be vigilant and care in regards to the folks occurring these missions.”
On condition that the schedule to late November 2024 already has not simply zero margin, however some weeks of destructive margin, launch readiness remains to be prone to transfer into the 2025 calendar yr.
Artemis I crew module will full abort qualification for Orion forward of Artemis II
Artemis II will mark Orion’s preliminary working functionality following the Exploration Flight Check-1 mission in late 2014 and Artemis I in late 2022. In parallel with preparations of flight and floor programs for Artemis, the Artemis I crew module is being reconfigured within the MPPF at KSC from its lunar mission to an setting check article that can be used to assist certify Orion for Artemis II.
“We flew Artemis I with out full abort qualification as a result of we knew we wouldn’t abort Artemis I and we’re utilizing that automobile to shut out abort qualification for Artemis II,” Korth defined. “It’s over there [in the MPPF] now, it’s on the brink of do its preliminary power-on (IPO).”
“[Following Artemis I] first we needed to de-service it, we took the avionics out that we wished to refly on Artemis II, then they’ve to wash the entire propellant out of it and get it to the place folks will be round it after which there was some {hardware} installations to do. That’s been finished and I don’t know precisely when preliminary power-on testing is occurring, however IPO is imminent in on the brink of ship it to the Armstrong Check Facility in November.”
The Artemis I spacecraft will spend a couple of months in Ohio present process these exams after which ultimately come again to KSC.
“Ideally the plan is to ship it there in November, the testing begins in round January, after which wraps up [in the] March timeframe [and] it comes again to Kennedy House Heart for the publish environmental testing prop testing,” Korth mentioned. The spacecraft goes via a set of purposeful exams after the environmental testing, and as a result of toxicity of Orion’s propellants, these purposeful exams can be carried out after the spacecraft returns to the MPPF at KSC.
“We would like to have the ability to cycle the prop valves earlier than and in spite of everything this environmental testing, so many of the functionals after the check are finished at ATF after which it comes again to the MPPF to do the ultimate post-test functionals to show that every thing labored.”
(Lead picture: The Artemis II flight crew in entrance of their Orion crew module at KSC. Credit score: Max Evans for NSF)
