Orion spacecraft makes crucial move toward its 2026 launch to moon
The Artemis II crew will become the first people to be so close to the moon since 1972.
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The Orion spacecraft undergoes preparations for the NASA Artemis II mission at the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the Kennedy Space Center in March. The spacecraft was moved seven miles to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center Thursday. (Photo Credit: Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo)
Oct. 17 (UPI) -- NASA's Orion spacecraft was moved seven miles to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center Thursday, its second-to-last move before its scheduled launch in 2026.
NASA got an exception to allow it to continue work during the government shutdown in certain areas, including the Artemis II mission.
The spacecraft, which contains the crew and service modules, was moved seven miles from the Launch Abort System Facility to the VAB around midnight EDT Friday.
Four astronauts will fly atop the Orion. The Artemis II crew will become the first people to be so close to the moon since 1972. The astronauts are Commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen. They named the craft "Integrity."
The Artemis II crew -- pictured (L to R), Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover and mission Commander Reid Wiseman -- discussed upcoming test activities at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in July. The Orion spacecraft was moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building Thursday. (Photo Credit: Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo)
Charlie Blackwell-Thomson, the Artemis 2 launch director, gave a mission overview briefing on Sept. 22 and said the Orion Stage Adapter would be stacked in High Bay 3 the week before its arrival, Spaceflightnow reported.
Orion will undergo a barrage of tests in the coming months, she said. Like the Artemis I mission, Orion will get the End-to-End Comm Test and the Interface Verification Test. But there will be others because the flight will be manned.
Twin solid rocket boosters are stacked for the NASA Artemis II mission at the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in March. Artemis II will be the program's first crewed mission and will orbit the moon on a shakedown flight before landing Americans on the lunar surface. (Photo Credit: Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo)
"Those new tests consist of the Countdown Demonstration Test, which is about our crewed flight. Back in the shuttle days, we had a similar test that was called TCDT: Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test," Spaceflightnow reported Blackwell-Thompson said. "That's where we suit up the crew, they come out, we go through our checklist and our countdown. They'll enter the ship, we'll get them strapped in, we'll do comm checks, we'll do the configuration of the crew module and we'll count down to inside of terminal count before we have a planned stop."
In August 2023, NASA's Artemis II Orion Spacecraft sat in the Operations and Checkout Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as it was being prepared for the first crewed mission in the Artemis program. (Photo Credit: Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo)
Teams will conduct a test of the flight termination system and begin final vehicle closeouts, once the Countdown Demonstration Test Part 1 is complete, she said.
"And when all of that is done, we'll get ready to roll out from the VAB to the pad," Blackwell-Thompson said, about the next journey the craft will take -- about four miles. "Once we get to the launch pad, we will make the connections between the Mobile Launcher and the pad. We have a little bit of testing that we will do out there, as well."
The Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter (LVSA) rolls from the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in March. The adapter will be placed onto the Space Launch System Core Booster for Artemis II, NASA's first crewed moon mission. (Photo Credit: Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo)
After that, it's time for the wet dress rehearsal. This is the test that discovered hydrogen fuel leaks in the Artemis I. Blackwell-Thomson said last month that the leak issue has been "put to bed." They changed the design of a valve and demonstrated a gentler fueling procedure three years ago, Ars Technica reported.
"That'll be a full tanking of the vehicle, core stage and upper stage. We'll get into a terminal count, and again, we will count down inside a terminal count to about the 29-second point and then we will terminate that test," she said. "We'll go review the data and a few days later, we'll get into launch countdown."
The work and testing at the pad takes about 18 days, Blackwell-Thomson said.
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