Team Powers On AA-2 Orion Module, Preps for Flight Test Simulation

The team of engineers outfitting the Orion test article for Ascent Abort-2 have had a busy summer. Since the arrival of the empty capsule in March, the team at Johnson Space Center in Houston has outfitted the mock crew module with all the components it needs for flight and powered it on for the first time the week of July 8.

Powering on the vehicle is a big milestone toward the flight test and ensures the crew module works in an integrated fashion. Powering up Orion is a lot more complicated that simply flipping on a switch. The multi-day, incremental process began with teams applying power to the power distribution unit to ensure all the pins in the unit have the right voltages.

One by one, additional systems were connected and powered to ensure that the vehicle is healthy and providing the right data. Engineers have positioned all of the core avionics, outfitted the data instrumentation, and routed and clamped almost 11 miles of harnessing inside Orion.

Ascent Abort-2 is a full-stress test of Orion's Launch Abort System (LAS) planned for April 2019. It is the only remaining flight test of the active LAS before flying crew on Orion beginning with Exploration Mission-2, and it is essential for a system designed to carry humans to the Moon and beyond. The system is built to propel Orion and its crew to a safe distance away from the Space Launch System rocket if an emergency arises during launch.

Now that the power-on activity is complete, engineers are moving right into simulating the flight test, including ground support milestones, the prelaunch countdown and flight profile, followed by testing to verify that the vehicle will perform as expected.

Upon completion of testing, technicians will have a few mechanical elements to finish integrating before the crew module is rolled on its side to verify its weight and center of gravity, both of which have to be the same as the Orion that will send crew to deep space to ensure the April flight test provides accurate data for a mission abort scenario.

The spacecraft will soon be shipped to Glenn Research Center's Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio, where it will undergo several weeks of acoustics testing. It will return to Johnson in the September timeframe for integration with the separation ring that connects the crew module to its booster, and then transported to the Kennedy Space Center for integration with the booster for launch. Credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz.

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