SANDUSKY, Ohio — NASA’s newest spacecraft, Orion, has been in Ohio for weeks now at NASA Glenn’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky. It’s preparing to undergo 4 months of testing before an unmanned flight around the moon. This is the first mission of the Artemis program that will take the first woman and return man to the moon and beyond.
Once inside the high bay of the Space Environment Complex, the Orion was unwrapped and positioned to be lifted by crane into a large cage, called the heat flux system. Then 1500 different instruments and sensors were connected. And finally it was moved into the world’s largest vacuum chamber, where it will spend months exposed to extreme temperatures.
Bob Kowalski, the Facility Manager said, “The main purpose of the tests is to make sure the Orion capsule and the service module, can live up to how it was designed.”
The staff at Plum Brook has been testing hardware for the Artemis program for years.
“It’s the 6th test we’ve done up here at Plum Brook Station,” stated Orion Project Testing Manager, Nicole Smith. “And now we're culminating here in this big test, and then there are a couple of others before we put people on the Artemis missions.”
Earlier this week, NASA completed core stage of the rocket that will take the Orion into space. Both the rocket and the spacecraft will travel to Florida before launch in late 2020.
NASA Administrator James Bridenstine remarked, “We are making significant progress towards achieving that Artemis 3 mission and getting our first women and next man to the south pole of the moon in 2024.”