Orion EM-1 Heat Shield Offload, Transport, and Lift

Similar

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The aft end of space shuttle Discovery is connected to a purge unit, one of the vehicles in the landing convoy at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A purge unit pumps conditioned air into a shuttle after landing. Preparations are under way to tow Discovery from the Shuttle Landing Facility to Orbiter Processing Facility-2. Discovery touched down on Runway 15 at 11:57 a.m., bringing an end to its 39th and final spaceflight mission, STS-133. Discovery and its six-member STS-133 crew delivered the Permanent Multipurpose Module, packed with supplies and critical spare parts, as well as Robonaut 2, the dexterous humanoid astronaut helper, to the International Space Station. Inside the processing facility, Discovery will be prepared for future public display. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller KSC-2011-2155

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, spacecraft arrives at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla. The spacecraft was built by engineers at Goddard Space Flight Center, where it recently completed two months of tests in a thermal vacuum chamber. The orbiter will carry seven instruments to provide scientists with detailed maps of the lunar surface and enhance our understanding of the moon's topography, lighting conditions, mineralogical composition and natural resources. Information gleaned from LRO will be used to select safe landing sites, determine locations for future lunar outposts and help mitigate radiation dangers to astronauts. The polar regions of the moon are the main focus of the mission because continuous access to sunlight may be possible and water ice may exist in permanently shadowed areas of the poles. Accompanying LRO on its journey to the moon will be the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, a mission that will impact the lunar surface in its search for water ice. Launch of LRO is targeted for April 24. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2009-1597

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - After its shipping cover was removed, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo Exposed Facility, or EF, is moved to a high bay in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. When it is installed on the Kibo laboratory, the EF will provide a multipurpose platform where science experiments can be deployed and operated in the exposed environment. The payloads attached to the EF can be exchanged or retrieved by Kibo's robotic arm, the JEM Remote Manipulator System. The EF, along with the Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section, will be carried aboard space shuttle Endeavour on the STS-127 mission targeted for launch May 15, 2009. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-08pd3014

STS-131 MPLM LEONARDO MOVE FROM WORKSTAND TO WEIGHT & CG THEN MOVE TO CANISTER 2010-2229

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – As the cover of the transportation trailer is lifted in the high bay of the Building 836 hangar on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the second stage for NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission, or OCO-2, comes into view. OCO-2 is scheduled to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket from Space Launch Complex 2 in July. The rocket's second stage will insert OCO-2 into a polar Earth orbit. OCO-2 will collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere and provide scientists with a better idea of the chemical compound's impacts on climate change. Scientists will analyze this data to improve our understanding of the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important atmospheric gas. To learn more about OCO-2, visit http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov. Photo credit: NASA/Arron Tauman, 30th Space Wing, VAFB KSC-2014-1515

Orion EM-1 Heat Shield Offload, Transport, and Lift

description

Summary

A flatbed truck with the shipping container carrying the Orion heat shield for Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1) backs into the low bay at the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The heat shield arrived aboard the agency’s Super Guppy aircraft at the Shuttle Landing Facility, managed and operated by Space Florida, from Lockheed Martin’s manufacturing facility near Denver. The heat shield will be offloaded and moved into the high bay for processing. The Orion spacecraft will launch atop NASA’s Space Launch System rocket on EM-1, an uncrewed test flight, in 2018.

label_outline

Tags

nasa dimitri gerondidakis

kennedy space center

orion em