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By NASA
Crane operator Rebekah Tolatovicz, a shift mechanical technician lead for Artic Slope Regional Corporation at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, operates a 30-ton crane to lift the agency’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft out of the recently renovated altitude chamber to the Final Assembly and Systems Testing, or FAST, cell inside NASA Kennedy’s Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building on April 27.
During her most recent lift July 10, Tolatovicz helped transfer Orion back to the FAST cell following vacuum chamber qualification testing in the altitude chamber earlier this month. This lift is one of around 250 annual lifts performed at NASA Kennedy by seven operator/directors and 14 crane operators on the ASRC Orion team.
“At the time of the spacecraft lift, I focus solely on what’s going on in the moment of the operation,” explains Tolatovicz. “Listening for the commands from the lift director, making sure everyone is safe, verifying the vehicle is clear, and ensuring the crane is moving correctly.”
All Orion crane operators are certified after classroom and on-the-job training focusing on areas such as rigging, weight and center of gravity, mastering crane controls, crane securing, assessing safety issues, and emergency procedures. Once certified, they progress through a series of the different lifts required for Orion spacecraft operations, from simple moves to the complex full spacecraft lift.
“It’s not until after the move is complete and the vehicle is secured that I have a moment to think about how awesome it is to be a part of history on the Orion Program and do what I get to do every day with a team of the most amazing people,” Tolatovicz said.
Photo credit: NASA/Amanda Stevenson
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By NASA
Astronauts will test drive NASA’s Orion spacecraft for the first time during the agency’s Artemis II test flight next year. While many of the spacecraft’s maneuvers like big propulsive burns are automated, a key test called the proximity operations demonstration will evaluate the manual handling qualities of Orion.
During the approximately 70-minute demonstration set to begin about three hours into the mission, the crew will command Orion through a series of moves using the detached upper stage of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket as a mark. The in-space propulsion stage, called the ICPS (interim cryogenic propulsion stage), includes an approximately two-foot target that will be used to evaluate how Orion flies with astronauts at the controls.
“There are always differences between a ground simulation and what an actual spacecraft will fly like in space,” said Brian Anderson, Orion rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking manager within the Orion Program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “The demonstration is a flight test objective that helps us reduce risk for future missions that involve rendezvous and docking with other spacecraft.”
After NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen are safely in space, the Moon rocket’s upper stage will fire twice to put Orion on a high Earth orbit trajectory. Then, the spacecraft will automatically separate from the rocket stage, firing several separation bolts before springs push Orion a safe distance away.
As the spacecraft and its crew move away, Orion will perform an automated backflip to turn around and face the stage. At approximately 300 feet away, Orion will stop its relative motion. The crew will take control and use the translational and rotational hand controllers and display system to make very small movements to ensure Orion is responding as expected.
Next, the crew will very slowly pilot Orion to within approximately 30 feet of the stage. A two-foot auxiliary target mounted inside the top of the stage, similar to the docking target used by spacecraft visiting the International Space Station, will guide their aim.
“The crew will view the target by using a docking camera mounted inside the docking hatch window on the top of the crew module to see how well aligned they are with the docking target mounted to the ICPS,” Anderson said.
“It’s a good stand in for what crews will see when they dock with Starship on Artemis III and to the Gateway on future missions.”
About 30 feet from the stage, Orion will stop and the crew will checkout the spacecraft’s fine handling qualities to evaluate how it performs in close proximity to another spacecraft. Small maneuvers performed very close to the ICPS will be done using the reaction control system thrusters on Orion’s European Service Module.
Orion will then back away and allow the stage to turn to protect its thermal properties. The crew will follow the stage, initiate a second round of manual maneuvers using another target mounted on the side of the stage, approach within approximately 30 feet, perform another fine handling quality check out, then back away.
At the end of the demonstration, Orion will perform an automated departure burn to move away from the ICPS before the stage then fires to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere over a remote location in the Pacific Ocean. During Orion’s departure burn, engineers will use the spacecraft’s docking camera to gather precise positioning measurements, which will help inform navigation during rendezvous activities on future missions in the lunar environment, where there is no GPS system.
Because the Artemis II Orion is not docking with another spacecraft, it is not equipped with a docking module containing lights and therefore is reliant on the ICPS to be lit enough by the Sun to allow the crew to see the targets.
“As with many of our tests, it’s possible the proximity operations demonstration won’t go exactly as expected,” said Anderson. “Even if we don’t accomplish every part of the demonstration, we’ll continue on with the test flight as planned to accomplish our primary objectives, including evaluating Orion’s systems with crew aboard in the deep space environment and keeping the crew safe during the mission.”
The approximately 10-day Artemis II flight will test NASA’s foundational human deep space exploration capabilities, the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, for the first time with astronauts and will pave the way for lunar surface missions, including landing the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner astronaut on the Moon.
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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The Orion spacecraft from Artemis I – now known as the Orion Environmental Test Article – arrives at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, ahead of eight months of testing. Credit: NASA/Jordan Salkin
The Orion spacecraft that traveled around the Moon and back during 2022’s Artemis I mission completed a different round trip when it recently returned to Ohio for testing.
Now known as the Orion Environmental Test Article, the spacecraft is undergoing ground testing at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio. This testing is crucial to the safety and success of Artemis II – a 10-day flight test scheduled for 2025, during which four astronauts will demonstrate the spacecraft’s capabilities in the lunar vicinity. The flight will be the first crewed mission under NASA’s Artemis campaign.
Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, prepare the Orion Environmental Test Article for testing in advance of the Artemis II mission.
Credit: NASA/Steven Logan and Jim Zunt
Over the next eight months, engineers and technicians from NASA and Lockheed Martin will subject the test article to the extreme conditions Orion may experience during a launch abort scenario. The lengthy test campaign includes simulated lightning strikes and abort-level acoustics reaching levels of more than 160 decibels, louder than a jackhammer. It also includes deployments of the spacecraft’s docking and shielding covers and its crew module uprighting system, five airbags on top of the capsule that inflate upon splashdown. The test campaign serves to ensure Orion is ready to protect the crew if an emergency occurs during launch.
This Orion spacecraft completed months of space environmental testing in 2019 and 2020 at Armstrong Test Facility before its 2022 flight test, showing that the path to the Moon goes through Ohio. The test facility is the only place in the world capable of testing full-scale spacecraft in the extreme conditions experienced during launch and flight.
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By NASA
NASA’s Artemis II crew members are assisted by U.S. Navy personnel as they exit a mockup of the Orion spacecraft onto an inflatable “front porch” while NASA’s Exploration Ground System’s Landing and Recovery team and partners from the Department of Defense aboard the USS San Diego practice recovery procedures using the Crew Module Test Article, during Underway Recovery Test 11 (URT-11) off the coast of San Diego, California on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024. NASA/Jamie Peer When Artemis II NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen return to Earth after a nearly 10-day mission around the Moon, a joint NASA and Department of Defense team led by NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program will be ready to retrieve them from the Orion spacecraft and ferry them onto a naval ship in the Pacific Ocean.
As Orion enters Earth’s atmosphere, the capsule will keep the crew safe as it slows from nearly 25,000 mph to about 300 mph, when its system of 11 parachutes will deploy in a precise sequence to help slow the capsule and crew to a relatively gentle 20 mph for splashdown about 60 miles off the coast of California, weather permitting.
Prior to splashdown, a team from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, called Sasquatch, will map where elements jettisoned from Orion such as the forward bay cover, drogue parachutes, and mortars, will land in the Ocean so the boats and helicopters supporting recovery stay clear of those areas.
NASA Artemis II crew members are assisted by U.S. Navy personnel as they exit a mockup of the Orion spacecraft in the Pacific Ocean during Underway Recovery Test 11 (URT-11) on Feb. 25, 2024, while his crewmates look on. URT-11 is the eleventh in a series of Artemis recovery tests, and the first time NASA and its partners put their Artemis II recovery procedures to the test with the astronauts.NASA/Kenny Allen Once it is safe to approach the capsule, helicopters, and a team of Navy divers in small boats, along with NASA’s open water lead, will begin making their way to the capsule. The Navy divers then will assess the environment surrounding the capsule to make sure there are no hazards present.
Teams will stabilize Orion before the crew exits the capsule in the open water by installing an inflatable collar. To safely retrieve the astronauts, the divers also will install an inflatable raft, called the front porch, under Orion’s side hatch to aid in astronaut retrieval from the capsule.
“Our highly choreographed recovery operations will help ensure the final phase of NASA’s first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years ends as a success,” said Lili Villareal, NASA’s landing and recovery director.
When all four crew members are out of the capsule, the front porch is repositioned about 100 yards from Orion to allow the astronauts to be individually lifted into a helicopter and returned to the ship. Two helicopters will be deployed to retrieve the crew. The helicopters will each retrieve two crewmembers and deliver them to the deck of the naval ship.
Once on the ship, the astronauts will be transported to a medical bay for a post-mission evaluation before flying on a helicopter from the ship back to shore and then to Johnson. Teams expect to recover the crew and deliver them to the medical bay within two hours of splashdown. If the crew returns to Earth at night, teams expect the recovery activities to take a bit longer but still must meet a requirement to have the crew in the medical bay within two hours.
With the crew safely out of the capsule, teams will work on towing Orion into the well deck of the ship, using procedures similar to those used during Artemis I. Navy divers will secure a system of lines to the capsule via several connection points on a collar to help tow Orion inside the ship.
NASA’s Artemis II crew members (front to back) NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen descend the well deck of the USS San Diego as NASA’s Exploration Ground System’s Landing and Recovery team and partners from the Department of Defense aboard the ship practice recovery procedures using the Crew Module Test Article, during Underway Recovery Test 11 (URT-11) off the coast of San Diego, California on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024. When Orion is close to the vessel, an additional line attached to a pneumatic winch will be affixed to the capsule by the divers. These ropes all work together to ensure the capsule is stable as it is slowly pulled inside the ship. A team of sailors and NASA recovery personnel inside the ship will begin manually pulling some of the lines to help align Orion with the stand it will be placed on once back on the ship.
As the sailors are pulling on the lines, NASA technicians will operate a main winch line attached to the capsule to help bring Orion inside making for a safe and precise recovery. After Orion is on a stand, the well deck will be drained of water and the ship will begin making its way back to Naval Base San Diego. Under NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will establish the foundation for long-term scientific exploration at the Moon, land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the lunar surface, and prepare for human expeditions to Mars for the benefit of all.
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