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Raumfahrt - SLS Raumschiff ORION Update-36

3.03.2019

Lockheed Martin getting NASA’s EM-1 Orion modules ready for final mate

The two modules that will fly NASA’s first solo Orion flight into lunar orbit and back are going through standalone testing in the lead up to becoming a mated spacecraft. The Crew and Service Modules for the Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) flight are being assembled and tested by Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin in the Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.

The integrated Service Module joining the European Service Module (ESM) with the Crew Module Adapter (CMA) was powered up as a unit for the first time on February 14 to begin a last set of tests before it is ready to mate with the Crew Module. The last pieces due for the Crew Module arrived and are installed, so it can finish its pre-mate testing.

Once the modules are mated to form the in-flight EM-1 Orion, several weeks of pre-launch closeouts will also serve to get the spacecraft ready for space environment tests at Plum Brook Station in Ohio later this year.

Service Module initial power up on Valentine’s Day

Following a few months of work joining the ESM and CMA to form the EM-1 Service Module, the integrated unit was powered up for the first time on February 14. “It was about six o’clock in the afternoon when we actually powered up the first PDU (Power Data Unit),” Jules Schneider, Lockheed Martin Orion Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO) Director at KSC, said in an interview the next day. “We’re into powered-on testing as we speak.”

“You’ve got to power up the avionics system and I believe we do the big elements like the PDUs and the big avionics components one at a time and then we load the software,” he added. “We have the active thermal control loops loaded and running so we can cool everything as we’re powered up.”

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“Prior to actually applying the power we end up loading PGW (propylene, glycol, and water mixture), which is the coolant, and the R134a (refrigerant) we use from the ground side to cool everything,” Scott Wilson, NASA’s Production Operations Manager for the Orion Program, explained in the same interview. “Like Jules said that lets us bring up the active thermal control, which you need to run all the avionics racks.”

For this round of testing, the Service Module is connected to ground support equipment that provides services from currently unconnected systems inside and outside the SM. “We have a full suite of what we call electrical ground support equipment, EGSE, and we have I call them racks, they’re large cabinets full of different electronics and they represent different elements of the system, both on the ground side and the CM (Crew Module) side,” Schneider said.

“It basically simulates both the crew module as well as any of the systems we don’t have installed, like solar arrays today,” Wilson added. “So the racks, for instance, simulates the power the solar arrays would provide. There’s many racks that simulate the crew module itself and then there’s couplers to antennas and things like that when we get into RF (radio frequency) testing and phased array testing, those kind of things.”

Also called initial power-on (IPO), powering up the systems was in preparation for a functional checkout of the module. “The power up procedure only runs for about 36 hours, I think all you’re doing there is again, turning everything on and loading all the software and making sure you’re seeing nothing strange and things look nominal,” Schneider explained. “Then we actually have a series of thirteen functional tests that we’re going to run over the next three weeks to check out different subsystems and components that are a part of the Service Module.”

Prime contractor Lockheed Martin assembles and tests Orion vehicles in the O&C Building for launch. The Crew Module and Crew Module Adapter elements are delivered as bare structures that Lockheed Martin assembles and integrates into working spacecraft modules.

The ESM is assembled and integrated by Airbus Defence and Space in Bremen, Germany. Arrival in Florida starts final assembly of the three elements; once complete, the spacecraft is turned over to NASA at KSC for launch processing on-site.

The EM-1 mission is the second test mission in a three-flight development sequence as a part of the Orion Program’s Design, Development, Test and Evaluation (DDT&E). The Crew Module was the only working version that flew on the first Orion test flight, Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) in December, 2014, where it flew most of the four-hour mission attached to a passive, mass simulator of the Service Module and the upper stage of the Delta 4 Heavy launch vehicle.

This second flight spacecraft adds a working Service Module; the first flight ESM and CMA enables Orion to fly solo for the first time. The flight plan for Orion on EM-1 is to enter a Distant Retrograde Orbit (DRO) of the Moon on a flight that should last at least four weeks, maybe longer.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Schneider noted. “We’re about a quarter of the way through the schedule that started when the ESM showed up and culminates with us delivering the integrated Crew and Service Module out of the O&C Building. We’re about a fourth of the way through that processing plan.”

Service Module road to IPO

The ESM, Flight Model-1, arrived at KSC in early November, kicking off a dense, year-long schedule of work to get the EM-1 Orion vehicle ready to handover to NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) for launch preparations. A week after its November 8 arrival, the ESM and CMA were mated in the lift station, one of several work areas in the O&C Building for processing Orion hardware.

“We had a few challenges when you put the two surfaces together, mating up all the holes, and we worked through those challenges but that was not to be unexpected when you have two structures with lots of things hanging on them,” Wilson said. “So it took a little while to get everything aligned physically.”

“Then we go into the clean room where we weld the tubes that interface between the ESM side and the CMA side for the fluid systems, the various different propulsion and ECLSS (Environmental Control and Life Support System) systems,” Schneider explained. “Then like we do with all of our tube welds we have to do a structural test of those welds, so after the clean room we go into the proof test cell and we perform a proof test of all those tube welds and we do pre and post NDE (non-destructive evaluation) on those welds and a leak check of all those joints as well.”

“I think all the welding work went very well in the tubes, no real issues there,” Wilson said. “Proof test went really well.”

The welds were X-rayed after they were performed and then again after proof test. “The first ones you do are looking to make sure you’ve got a good weld,” Schneider said. “Yeah, you don’t have any porosity or concavity,” Wilson added.

“On the post-proof NDE, you’re looking to see if there were any undetectable flaws that grew during the pressure testing that you would now detect,” Schneider continued. “But we didn’t get any of those, so we’re in good shape,” Wilson again added. “We use digital X-ray, by the way, which is a good advanced technology.”

Following the proof test and post-proof NDE, the module was taken back to the lift station to close out all the inside connections. “We went back into the lift station primarily because the lift station gives us really good access,” Schneider noted.

“It’s got that platform that gives us 360-degree access on the exterior and that’s when we reinstalled PDUs S1 and S2 because they had come back from their repair or rework, we reinstalled them. There’s a whole bunch of I’ll call them ‘cats and dogs’ kinds of things that we had to clean up like there’s multi-layer insulation (MLI) that we had to go in and finalize.”

One of those was installing some additional components on the CMA part of the Service Module. “There’s a couple of phased-array antennas that hang on the aft walls of the CMA and then the star trackers and the OpNav (Optical Navigation) camera are part of an assembly we call the ‘optical bench’ and that hangs off of the aft end of the aft walls of the CMA, as well,” Schneider said.

“That platform in the lift station gives us really good access to be able to install those things, and then we have to mate up all the electrical harnesses to those elements, do all of that testing.”

Schneider and Wilson provided an overview of the intricacies of some of the MLI and heater close outs the team completed in the lift station. “There’s a lot of insulation that once you finish all those harness routings and component installations, there’s MLI that gets over the top of them,” Wilson said. “And you know once you close things out like that for flight you got to take a bunch of pictures and document all that stuff,” Schneider added.

“The other part that’s been a lot of work, too, has been up on the top part of the Service Module and the top part of the CMA, is heater closeouts and heater installations,” Wilson also noted.

“The more tedious work, actually, that happened in that phase is on the inside of the CMA,” Schneider added. “We have an internal access platform set or kit that we install that allows folks to get on the inside of the CMA and also access the forward end of the ESM.”

There’s a bunch of tanks up there that get MLI closeouts, all those tubes that we welded in the clean room all have to get heaters and temp (temperature) sensors integrated to them,” he explained. “You’re laying on your stomach reaching down. It’s kind of tedious, difficult work and you can’t have a lot of people in there at one time.”

“So it’s kind of tedious and difficult work and then you’ve got to wrap all the heaters with special tape and it’s…painful,” he added.

The module was then moved to the Avionics, Power and Wiring Station in early February for IPO and functional testing.

NASA and Lockheed have been building the American modules in the O&C Building for a while, but the team performing this first Service Module integration brought together both NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and their respective contractors.

“It’s interesting because it’s the first phase of work we’ve had where you’ve got the international team, too,” Wilson noted. “And so you’ve got both NASA and Lockheed folks and Lockheed is normal contractor supporting like we’ve always had, but we also now have ESA and Airbus and TAS-I (Thales Alenia Space Italy) and Dutch Space (now Airbus Defence and Space Netherlands) all in the mix, too, doing their work and interleaving all of that in the workflow. It potentially could have been a challenging time having that many different entities working [together] but it’s gone very, very well.”

Two more Service Module tests

As NASA Orion Program Manager Mark Kirasich put it when the ESM arrived at KSC in November, “What we’re going to do now and what we’ll keep doing for the next several months is ‘integrate and test’ and ‘integrate and test’ to make sure that these vehicles function well together.”

More specifically Schneider said: “We basically build the vehicle up to a level that matches the next test configuration.” “There’s a lot of internal components tanks and avionics boxes and things that are inside the CMA, inside the outer mold line of the Service Module,” Wilson added. “I think for the most part we’re done.”

Once functional testing is complete, the Service Module will have two more standalone tests. The first is a thermal cycle test.

In addition to all the operational wiring and sensors packing into the spacecraft, this first working Service Module has a significant amount of development flight instrumentation (DFI) installed. “DFI is probably one of the biggest challenges we have, there’s so much of it,” Schneider said.

A qualification model solar array wing is test deployed while attached to the Service Module structural test article (STA) in February, 2016, at the Space Power Facility (SPF) at NASA Glenn’s Plum Brook Station in Ohio. Credit: NASA.

“I forget how many data acquisition units we have on the spacecraft, but I think it’s somewhere between six and eight, maybe even more and you need all that because there’s so much information being gathered by the instrumentation that you can only get like a fraction of it in the telemetry during the flight. The rest of it is all going to data acquisition units and stored onboard the CM and after the CM is recovered all that data is downloaded, pulled off those data acquisition units.”

“One of the other challenges with DFI is you usually don’t quite know where to put it until all the other systems are fully designed so it’s typically one of the last things to be designed and so that’s always a challenge you know when you’re trying to put those systems in, and kind of find the right places for them in the end,” Wilson added.

There’s even more instrumentation for ground tests like the thermal cycle test. “So you have GTI, which is ground test instrumentation, which is instrumentation that you need to get data during these tests. It’s not going to fly, so most of it comes off before we fly but some of the GTI is buried so you can’t get it off,” Schneider noted.

“So you have to put it on as if it were going to fly and then you just abandon it after you get the data from the test.”

“Once we get out of all the initial power up and the functional tests we’ll go into [an] oven basically,” Wilson added. “We’ll cook and cool it and that GTI is what tells us how it’s performing during those tests.”

The EM-1 Orion spacecraft adapter cone in August, 2018, at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The adapter will be temporarily installed on the bottom of the Service Module for the upcoming direct field acoustic test (DFAT). It will be reinstalled in the O&C by Lockheed Martin before the spacecraft is handed over to Exploration Ground Systems for launch processing next year. Credit: Philip Sloss for NSF/L2.

Following the thermal cycle test, the Service Module will be reconfigured for a direct field acoustic test (DFAT). For this ‘integrate and test’ cycle, most of the remaining, large appendages will be attached including the four solar array wings.

“I think the biggest scope yet to go with the ESM is the solar array integration, that’s a huge amount of work and they’re not on yet,” Schneider said.

“The Dutch Airbus guys show up, you know those are the guys that build it, they do a manual deploy just to check for damage during shipment and we do a soft-mate to the Service Module and do a deployment that way, driven by the spacecraft, and then we actually physically install them after we do that second deployment test.”In addition, the nozzle for the OMS-E engine and the spacecraft adapter (SA) will be installed at the base of the ESM for the DFAT. The test will validate that the working, integrated module handles high-noise levels within requirements and remains healthy.

The solar array wings and the spacecraft adapter are then removed and the Service Module is prepared for mating to the Crew Module. The OMS nozzle will remain on the spacecraft.

Crew Module status

While the Service Module integration and test activities were going on, a couple of remaining major components for the EM-1 Crew Module arrived recently and were installed. At the time the ESM arrived at KSC in November, a few of the CM avionics boxes were still being reworked and the first working side hatch was due from its vendor.

The EM-1 Crew Module in the O&C Building in November, 2018, prior to installation of the side hatch. The EM-1 vehicle will fly the first working hatch versus one bolted into place. Credit: NASA/Rad Sinyak.

“All the avionics are back in, we’ve actually done all of the regression testing associated with putting them back in, we’re finished with that,” Schneider noted. “We’re integrating the hatch as we speak, the side hatch integration should be complete next week,” he added.

The Crew Module was largely outfitted with those exceptions. Functional testing and a thermal cycle test were completed by the end of 2017 over a year ago and the heatshield was installed last summer. While waiting for ESM arrival and Service Module integration, issues with a few systems such as a few avionics boxes were addressed.

Now that all of the components are on-site, the Crew Module is being prepared for its last standalone test. “The Crew Module goes through a direct field acoustic test as well, it’s already been through its thermal cycle test,” Schneider noted.

The EFT-1 Crew Module inside a portable acoustic test configuration in a Lockheed Martin lab in Waterton, Colorado. A similar set up will be used for direct field acoustic tests (DFAT) of the Crew and Service Modules in the O&C Building at KSC. Credit: Dusty Volkel/Lockheed Martin.

“So we have to get it configured for the direct field test, which means we have to install the backshell panels temporarily and the forward bay cover. After we put the hatch on, we’re basically we’ve got a few ‘cats and dogs’ things to clean up but then mainly what we’re doing is getting it configured for the acoustics test.”

Another one of those cats and dogs is to install the docking hatch plate. After the DFAT is complete, the Crew Module will be prepared for mating to the Service Module.

A silicone-oxide coated aluminum kapton tape to prevent electrostatic discharge will be applied to the thermal protection system tiles on the backshell panels. For the EFT-1 flight, the tape covered the heatshield but not the backshell tiles.

One panel was recently taped to verify the first-time application procedures, but the remainder will be covered after the DFAT.

CM-SM mate

Once the remaining standalone tests are complete, the modules will be mated at the far end of the O&C Building. “The cell in the building that we do that work in we call the FAST (Final Assembly System Test) cell and the schedule has us in there for about eight weeks doing the CM to SM mate, but it’s not just the mate,” Schneider said.

The Service Module will be moved into the cell and then the Crew Module will be brought over and lifted on top on to join the two. “By the way, it’s the same exact location that the Apollo program used to stack the Command Module and their Service Module and a couple of the other elements that they used,” he noted.

The EFT-1 Service Module simulator loaded in the FAST cell in June, 2014. The EM-1 Service Module will be moved here for mating to the Crew Module after completing its standalone testing. Credit: NASA/Glenn Benson.

As Schneider observed earlier, the spacecraft is often being configured for its next set of tests, which will be a series at Plum Brook Station in Ohio later this year. In this case, getting the combined Crew and Service Module (CSM) ready for the space environment tests at Plum Brook will also configure some parts of the spacecraft for launch.

“The schedule has us in there for about eight weeks doing the CM to SM mate, but it’s not just the mate,” he explained. “The umbilical that runs between the CM and SM, you can’t put that on until you have a CM and an SM together, so again it’s bunch of that kind of stuff.”

“We put the backshell panels on I believe for flight in there, which means we have to do all the thermal barrier closeouts,” he added. “A lot of thermal barrier, MLI closeouts happen in that eight weeks because you’re really getting the vehicle buttoned up for flight.”

The EFT-1 Crew Module shortly after mate to the simulated Service Module structure in June, 2014, in the FAST cell. The EM-1 modules will be mated and closed out in the same cell for a trip to Plum Brook Station for thermal vacuum and EMI testing later this year. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett.

Schneider noted that all the functional testing on the Crew Module and Service Module before they are joined limits the testing necessary post-mate. “We try and test as much as we can at the module level and so by the time we get to the FAST cell the only things that we really need to test are the new interfaces,” he said.

“So anything that crosses the CM-SM interface we would test there, but we don’t do a lot of retesting of all the stuff that we tested at the module level, we just test the stuff across the interface, so umbilical tests or anything running across the umbilical or CM-SM R&R (Retention and Release) mechanism, those kinds of things are what we would test in the FAST cell.”

“We’ll do a high-level, general functional test prior to shipment to Plum Brook and then we’ll do the same thing after receive up there,” Wilson added.

Plum Brook testing later in the year

The combined Crew and Service Module (CSM) will be transported to Plum Brook for thermal vacuum (TVAC) and electromagnetic interference/compatibility (EMI/EMC) testing. The spacecraft will be powered for the tests.

“One of the things you want to do in the first thermal vacuum cycle we call it a thermal balance test and the idea is to figure out the equilibrium point of the spacecraft thermally and then you’re going to run the spacecraft itself because it’s both generating heat and radiating it at the same time so you want to make sure those systems are working,” Wilson explained.

Animation depicting the EM-1 Orion spacecraft after receiving in the Assembly High Bay at the Space Environment Complex at Plum Brook Station. The spacecraft is oriented horizontally transport to Ohio, then rotated to vertical for testing. Credit: NASA Glenn Research Center.

Without its solar array wings, the spacecraft’s power distribution system will get its power generation from the EGSE used at Kennedy. “That same ground support equipment that we use at KSC in the O&C to simulate the solar arrays like the way we are during the power-on testing right now, we’ll use that same rack of equipment up there and it basically simulates the power generation of the solar arrays and feeds it into the same connections on the spacecraft,” Wilson said.

“We have to run the active thermal control loops while we’re in there so all that stuff that we have here, we move to Plum Brook with the vehicle,” Schneider also noted.

Final steps before launch preparations

Orion and its associated ground support hardware will be transported back to KSC after the Plum Brook tests, where Lockheed Martin will install the remainder of the CSM hardware and closeout the spacecraft for launch.

In addition to the solar array wings and spacecraft adapter, the Service Module launch fairings will be installed. “They’re one of the last things we do because you’re closing out the access to the Service Module,” Schneider said. “So after the solar arrays get put back on after Plum Brook for flight, the last time, then we put the fairings on that encapsulate the Service Module.”

Lockheed Martin will then turn the spacecraft over in the O&C Building to EGS for launch processing.

Quelle: NS

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Update: 12.03.2019

Lockheed Martin assembling EM-2 structures for NASA’s first crewed Orion flight

While final assembly continues on the Orion spacecraft that will make the program’s first solo flight, the major pieces of the next spacecraft are being assembled alongside for the first crewed mission. A crew of four is planned to take the spacecraft on a Lunar flyby during the Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2) test flight.

The Crew Module and Crew Module Adapter are still mostly structures, but Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin is working with NASA to assemble, integrate, and test the EM-2 elements in parallel with the final work being done with the Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) spacecraft that will fly uncrewed. Once the primary and secondary structure installations are complete, technicians will begin welding fluid system lines and then eventually installing other components, including the systems to support the crew during EM-2.

Crew Module primary structure proof tested

The Crew Module is built around the pressure vessel that is the living and working area for Orion crews. The Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2) module recently completed its proof pressure test in the Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, following installation of additional hardware to fill out its primary structure.

“We just completed it,” Jules Schneider, Lockheed Martin Orion Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO) Director at KSC, said during a mid-February interview. “Best proof test we’ve had to date.”

“When I say ‘best’ the way I judge that is how many problems or how much the stress team struggled with any issues or data that they saw and it was a very quiet test,” he explained. “They came in, the stress guys came in, we performed the test, and I didn’t hear anything. I mean I didn’t hear one issue. The data they saw was as predicted, so really a clean test.”

Crew Module pressure vessels are welded from seven structural components at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans. The EM-2 article was completed in August and arrived at the O&C Building on August 24.

“We got the shell from Michoud, it went into our assembly jig, the famous birdcage, we put all the primary structure on that’s required for proof test, did the proof test,” Schneider noted.

Following proof test, the friction-stir welds done at MAF last year were being retested. “We’re back over near the birdcage,” Schneider said. “We’re actually doing the NDE (non-destructive evaluation) on the welds right now, the phased array [ultrasonic testing], and at the same time we’re just getting started on the secondary structure installation on EM-2 Crew Module.”

“A lot of the secondary structure are things like brackets that actually hold the tubing and align it so those are things you want to get in first,” Scott Wilson, NASA’s Production Operations Manager for the Orion Program, added. “It’s also some of the work that’s the dirtiest, right, with drilling.”

The secondary structure installation for the Crew Module is lengthy. “The crew module has literally hundreds of secondary structural elements and I’m not talking two-hundred, I’m probably talking closer to five-hundred so it takes a while,” Schneider noted.

Once structural assembly is completed, the module will go into the clean room where the tubing for the different fluid systems is attached and welded together. “I think we’re supposed to go into the clean room in the Summer, like July or something,” he added.

The tube welds will then be proof tested and leak checked and then technicians will begin integrating the core set of avionics and electrical systems to do an initial power-on (IPO) of the Crew Module. “When you come out of the clean room, you start putting in all the avionics boxes because you want to get into initial power-on,” Schneider said.

A second set of core avionics boxes was ordered to help with the EM-2 processing schedule. Although EM-1 spacecraft assembly is nearing completion, delays in launch mean it could still be almost two years off which could start impacting the assembly and test schedule for EM-2.

“I think the reason we went ahead and ordered the second set of core avionics is because we wanted to get to IPO as quickly as we can and I think we wanted to decouple IPO with the EM-2 CM from the EM-1 flight,” Schneider said.

“Originally we were going to take all the avionics out of EM-1 and basically recertify it and reuse it on EM-2,” Wilson added. “If you do that you end up waiting a little while for that avionics to get through recert and that would be a challenge to the EM-2 schedule.”

“We call it ‘core’ because it’s not every piece of avionics that we’ve got a second set for but it’s those key things that you need to get in early to enable EM-2’s initial power-on,” Wilson explained. “Then those other things we’ll sprinkle into the flow at the end and then the core set that’s on EM-1 will still get recertified, but it’ll go into a subsequent build.”

First time crew systems to be integrated with EM-2 spacecraft

The major, in-space elements of the Orion spacecraft are the Crew Module and Service Module, with the latter divided into a Crew Module Adapter (CMA) and European Space Agency (ESA) Service Module (ESM). Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for the Crew Module and CMA; Airbus Defence and Space is the prime contractor for the ESM.

The Crew Module and Crew Module Adapter elements are delivered as essentially bare metal structures that Lockheed Martin assembles and integrates into working spacecraft modules in the O&C Building at KSC. The ESM is assembled and integrated by Airbus in Bremen, Germany.

The ESM is then transported to KSC for final assembly, first with the CMA and then with the Crew Module, a process the Orion assembly team is currently going through with the EM-1 spacecraft. In parallel, EM-2 spacecraft assembly work is going on in adjacent work areas in the O&C.

EM-2 is the third and final development flight for Orion during the current Design, Development, Test and Evaluation (DDT&E) phase of the program. The crewed test flight planned for 2022 will make a long, high Earth orbit before looping around the Moon and returning.

The first Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission launched a working, but uncrewed version of the Crew Module with mass simulators for the Service Module elements. The EFT-1 Orion flew two Earth orbits, remaining attached to the Delta 4 Heavy upper stage until shortly before re-entry.

EM-1 is the second test flight, which adds a working Service Module to a second generation Crew Module. NASA is still hoping to launch that flight by the end of 2020; Orion will make its first solo flight, going into Lunar orbit for a half or one and a half revolutions before returning to Earth.

The spacecraft configuration for EM-2 adds all the equipment and additional supplies to support a four-person crew for up to twenty-one days on a standalone mission. “The main difference between EM-1 and EM-2 is just that, it’s really the crew interface and the suit interface,” Schneider said.

“The waste management system is not flying on EM-1, the displays, the flat panel displays because there’s no one to look or touch it, you know to issue to commands, those kinds of things are the things that we’re not flying on EM-1.”

A fully functioning Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) will be integrated for the first time on EM-2; in addition to waste management, there are systems for (among other things) air revitalization, fire detection and suppression, and cabin pressure and temperature management. Displays and controls for the crew to monitor the vehicle and also command and control operations when needed will be installed on EM-2, along with space-to-ground communication systems and seats used during dynamic phases of flight like ascent and entry.

Additional avionics boxes and software functionality are also being integrated into Orion’s computer systems on EM-2 to support the crew.

Crew Module Adapter structural assembly

The structures for the donut-shaped Crew Module Adapter arrived at KSC early in the year to begin structural assembly. “We received we call it the inner wall, which is now an inner ring,” Schneider said. “We received that in late January. It’s already loaded into the assembly jig and the metallic structure, the longerons and the intermediate frames have all been loaded into the tool and we’re in the process of mechanically assembling all that.”

“So when you do that you put the longerons up against it, locate it using the laser, you know lasers to shoot it in, and then the drilling I think we’ve already begun the drilling of four of the longerons,” Wilson added.

Schneider also noted: “The composite walls are starting to show up, the aft walls and the forward walls.”

The inner ring structure was redesigned from a set of composite panels to a single, machined piece of metal for EM-2.

“The inner ring as Jules said comprises the inner wall of it,” Wilson said. “It used to be as Mark (Kirasich) probably told you multiple pieces that was somewhat flexible [and] caused a lot of issues in manufacturing, so we’ve gone to this single milled ring.”

“That’s the inner mold line, kind of the center of the donut of the CMA and then around that radially go the longerons,” he added. “There’s primary longerons that are I think at six locations around it that comprise the load path all the way down into the ESM below it and the load path all way up through the longerons in the crew module.”

“And then between those six there’s what we call intermediate frames which provide the structure to it, but they’re not the primary load paths. And so those are the main things and then there’s some other frames, umbilical frames and different things in there but for the most part it’s the longerons and the intermediate frames.”

“The reason we call it the Crew Module Adapter is because it’s got all the interfaces between the Crew Module and Service Module so the umbilical frames, the ground umbilical is also in the CMA so you got frames that attach to ground umbilical plates,” Schneider explained.

“And then the two PDUs (Power Data Units) in the Service Module are housed in there, so there’s cold plates that have to go in and a lot of similar stuff in there to what’s in the Crew Module. We’ve got active thermal control in there and then all the electrical systems, wiring, all that stuff.”

The CMA will go through an outline of work similar to the Crew Module. “It’s not quite as long because it’s not as big and complicated — it doesn’t have as many components as the Crew Module does,” Schneider noted.

“It pretty much has the same exact sequencing from a life cycle standpoint that the Crew Module has — you do the structure first,” he continued. “Now there’s no structural welds, so you don’t have to do a structural proof test like you do on the crew module; but as soon as you get it structurally complete, you know it’s got secondary structure just like the crew module, you’ve got to do all that.”

“Then you go into the clean room and you have to integrate all the fluid systems just like you do on the crew module, [you] come out, you do a proof test on the welds on the tubes just like the crew module, and then you go into integrating all the avionics and electrical components.”

Heatshield, ESM work

Another major hardware element is still being fabricated off site. “Lockheed Martin Space in Denver builds the substrate, the structural elements of the heatshield,” Schneider said. “It’s in assembly as we speak.”

“It’s due here not too long from now and I think it’s on track to make it, so it’s in good shape. It’s a titanium truss with a composite substrate that goes over it that we bond the Avcoat blocks to. They’ve had a few challenges with it but I think they’ve worked through it and I think it’s coming to us in the Spring or in the Summer and we’ll start processing it, putting the Avcoat on it.”

Meanwhile assembly, integration, and test of ESM Flight Model-2 (FM-2) continues in Bremen. Airbus recently posted a photo marking the arrival of two of the large hypergolic propellant tanks there.

Quelle: NS

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Update: 15.03.2019

NASA chief acknowledges more trouble with SLS rocket

In this photo obtained from NASA, technicians at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans move the largest piece of structural test hardware for the new deep space rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS)
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The US space agency NASA on Wednesday cast a shadow on the future of its new heavy-lift rocket, the SLS—acknowledging development delays on a project that is already years behind.

The Space Launch System program is being run much as the Apollo and space shuttle mission were handled in the days of old.

But Wednesday's announcement illustrates how quickly NASA has embraced a new era dominated by private space companies who are offering the option of low-cost transport on a mission-by-mission basis.

"SLS is struggling to meet its schedule" and won't be ready in time for a first unmanned mission around the Moon and back, dubbed EM-1, set for June 2020, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine told lawmakers.

"Last week, it came to our attention that we're not going to be able to maintain the schedule," which is already three years behind, he told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

Boeing has spent years developing the SLS, which would be the most powerful rocket ever built, with the goal of resuming manned space missions to the Moon. The project has already cost $12 billion.

A capsule for astronauts, Orion, is being built by Lockheed-Martin and Europe for the missions.

Wednesday marked the first time that NASA has clearly acknowledged the extent of the problems with the SLS.

That news did not surprise industry analysts, who have signaled problems with the development of the SLS for years.

Boeing is using more than 1,000 subcontractors in 43 US states to get the job done. That translates to thousands and thousands of jobs.

Congress initially wanted a first flight in late 2016. NASA then pushed back the date little by little.

But Bridenstine then made the shocking announcement that he wants to entrust the EM-1 mission to existing private launch systems, instead of waiting for SLS to be ready.

"We have amazing capability that exists right now that we can use off the shelf in order to accomplish this objective," he said.

He did not specify which private company he had in mind, but SpaceX—founded by billionaire Elon Musk—would be a natural candidate with its Falcon Heavy rocket.

The Delta IV Heavy of United Launch Alliance—a joint venture of Lockheed and Boeing—also would be a capable alternative.

Congress will have to decide

The new plan would consist of launching the Orion capsule, and then following it up with the launch of an upper stage for propulsion.

The two elements would then dock in orbit for the voyage around the Moon.

No rocket in existence today is capable of lifting both elements together, because of their weight, which is why NASA had said it needed the more powerful SLS.

"I want to be clear, we do not have right now an ability to dock the Orion crew capsule with anything in orbit. So between now and June of 2020, we would have to make that a reality," Bridenstine said.

One skeptical senator reminded him: "This is 2019...."

Bridenstine replied: "NASA has a history of not meeting launch dates, and I'm trying to change that."

The administration of President Donald Trump has made it clear that it is unhappy with all the delays.

In its budget proposal unveiled on Monday, the government wants to let the private sector launch the components of the mini-space station, dubbed the Gateway, that NASA wants to put in orbit around the Moon in the 2020s.

It also decided that private companies would launch a probe towards Jupiter's moon Europa.

Both of those missions were initially expected to be carried out using the SLS.

In the end, Congress will have to decide whether to pass the space budget as is or request changes that would preserve the SLS program's place in upcoming missions.

Producing the SLS in 43 states means 86 senators have something to lose if the SLS program goes south, leading some snarky commentators to label it the "Senate Launch System."

The budget for 2020 should be adopted in the coming months.

Quelle: physorg

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NASA may take first Orion capsule launch from SLS

In a major shift in direction, NASA wants to give the first mission of the Space Launch System (SLS) to commercial rockets, Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Wednesday. “The goal is to get back on track,” Bridenstine told a Senate committee.

Bridenstine said NASA found out last week that SLS faces another delay from the original plan to launch for the first time in 2020 on a flight called Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1). The rocket’s development is being run by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.

‘If I tell you and others we’re going to launch in 2020, around the moon, which is what EM-1 is, I think we should launch around the moon in June of 2020,” Bridenstine said. “And I think it can be done.”

NASA is now studying whether to send its first Orion crew capsule and first European Service Module into space on a big commercial rocket, “launch a second heavy-lift rocket to put an upper stage into orbit around the Earth and then dock those two together to throw around the moon the Orion crew capsule with the European Space Module,” Bridenstine said.

“I want to be clear, Bridenstine said, “We do not right now have an ability to dock the Orion crew capsule with anything in orbit. So, between now and 2020, we would have to make that a reality.”

“This is 2019,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss>) interjected, laughing.

“Yes, sir,” Bridenstine replied. “Here’s the glory of the US of A. We have an amazing capability that exists right now that we can use off the shelf to accomplish this objective.” He apparently was referring to 2014, when a Delta IV Heavy rocket built by United Launch Alliance in Decatur, Ala., launched a test Orion capsule on a four-hour experimental trip around Earth.

Bridenstine said SLS remains “a critical piece of what the United States needs to build,” because of what it will be able to lift. But the agency is just now “understanding how difficult this project is and that it is going to take some additional time,” he said, adding that second launch of Orion with a crew should still belong to SLS.

The idea of using commercial boosters quickly met with skepticism from U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “While I agree that the delay in the SLS launch schedule is unacceptable,” Shelby said, “I firmly believe that SLS should launch the Orion.”

Quelle: AL

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Update: 17.03.2019

NASA boss says it again: We’re committed to SLS

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine testifies before a Senate committee on March 13 that the space agency is studying a plan to launch its first new moon mission on commercial rockets.

After taking steps to cancel its first big mission, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is telling his employees and the aerospace business community that the space agency “is committed to building and flying" the new rocket being developed in Alabama.

Bridenstine told a congressional hearing Wednesday that NASA is studying the possibility of shifting the first of SLS’s early missions to commercial rockets because SLS won’t be ready when the agency planned to launch. That testimony before a Senate panel set off a social media sensation. SLS skeptics and fans of SpaceX and United Launch Alliance – the two commercial companies most likely to get the launches – leaped on social media sites to praise Bridenstine, as did SLS skeptics.

The mission is test launch around the moon planned for 2020 of NASA’s new Orion capsule and the European Service Module that will supply it with power, air and water. NASA recently said it can’t make that launch schedule, and Bridenstine told the Senate using commercial rockets would be a one-time effort to keep the lunar return program on schedule.

Within 24 hours, the space press was widely saying things like this sentence from a story on the website spacenews.com: “In the day since that hearing, some have speculated that the proposal could be an attempt to demonstrate that the SLS was no longer necessary, particularly after the administration’s budget request for 2020 deferred work on the more powerful Block 1B version of SLS and moved some payloads, including elements of the lunar Gateway and the Europa Clipper mission, to other vehicles.”

Bridenstine took to NASA’s webpage Thursday to tell his workforce to “know that NASA is committed to building and flying the SLS….” He said SLS, a single large rocket that could boost both Orion and the service module at the same time, is safer and more efficient than the two-rocket solution he proposed to the Senate for the first flight.

Bridenstine said he is trying to keep NASA on schedule for a return to the moon strategy strongly supported by President Trump. The plan calls for two launches, the one in 2020 with an uncrewed Orion, and a launch in 2021 with astronauts aboard. Shifting to commercial rockets – if feasible – would allow NASA to “free up the first SLS for the launch of habitation or other hardware in in 2021.” That would get NASA back on track for a crewed flight around the moon in 2022…”

Quelle: AL

Raumfahrt - SLS Raumschiff ORION Update-36

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