The spacecraft is coming together at a NASA installation in Florida

Apr 12, 2014 10:15 GMT  ·  By

Engineers at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida announced recently that the test article for the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) spacecraft has just completed a new development milestone. The vehicle was turned on and ran on internal power for 26 straight hours, validating its capabilities to sustain manned missions to Earth's orbit and back. 

Orion will constitute the basis of the American manned space program starting in late 2017 or early 2018. It is designed to be launched by either a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy delivery system or by the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket NASA is developing. The latter is currently scheduled to fly for the first time no earlier than 2018.

According to the NASA announcement, the new power-on test was carried out at KSC on April 8, and the Orion was able to sustain its own operations throughout the test interval without a glitch. Some of the aspects that were verified during this assessment include the crew module's ability to route power through its internal systems and send commands to various systems and subsystems.

Engineers determined that the spacecraft is now able to manage its own computer systems and to control software and data loads, temperature sensors, propulsion valves, as well as a host of other instruments it needs to get about in space. This demonstration was the final phase of a major test series meant to prepare Orion for its first test flight, scheduled for December 2014.

The mission is designated Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1). It involves the Orion MPCV launching from the Space Launch Complex 37B (SLC-37B) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), a United States Air Force facility located next door to the KSC. The spacecraft will be delivered to orbit by a Delta IV Heavy rocket, since the SLS is nowhere near ready for this task.

During EFT-1, Orion will travel farther away from Earth than any manned spacecraft has in more than 40 years. The capsule is scheduled to reach an altitude of 5,800 kilometers (3,600 miles) above Earth's surface, before reentering the atmosphere and landing in the Pacific Ocean. The spacecraft will be aided by three massive parachutes during the final leg of its descent.

“This has been the most significant integrated testing of the Orion spacecraft yet. The work done to test the avionics with the crew module isn't just preparing us for Orion's first trip to space in a few months. It's also getting us ready to send crews far into the solar system,” said William Gerstenmaier.

The official holds an appointment as the associate administrator for human exploration and operations at NASA Headquarters, in Washington DC. The joint engineering team from NASA and Lockheed Martin – the main contractor for building Orion – first powered up the capsule in October 2013.

“Getting all the wiring right, integrating every element of the avionics together, and then testing it continuously for this many hours is a big step toward getting to deep space destinations,” added the manager of the Orion program, Mark Geyer.