A number of pictures at the web sites as well.
- LRK -
---------------------------------------------
http://www.spaceref.com/news/
NASA's First Lunar Orion Test Capsule Built
Ken Kremer
Monday, June 7, 2010
The GTA is the essential forerunner of a crewed spacecraft which NASA had intended to utilize for a return of human footsteps to the Moon, and then to Mars and beyond until President Obama proposed to wholly terminate Project Constellation, including Orion, in his initial 2011 budget proposal and radically alter NASA's future path.
"The Orion GTA is the flight test article that was designed in support of Lunar Missions," explained Mark McCloskey to me during my fact finding visit to Michoud to observe the capsule first hand. McCloskey is the Lockheed Martin Senior Production Manager for Orion at Michoud.
McCloskey and other senior Lockheed representatives spoke to me in depth about Orion development at NASA's Michoud manufacturing facility in New Orleans. Michoud is also the production site for the Space Shuttle's huge External Tanks, which I'll report on separately.
This GTA test vehicle is not the de-scoped and stripped down, unmanned " rescue lifeboat" recently proposed by President Obama at his April 15 space policy speech at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) where he resuscitated the Orion project, but with limited objectives and functionality.
snip
------------------------------
Another article with more information.
- LRK -
------------------------------
http://nasatech.net/
Orion Ground Test Article (GTA)
by Ken Kremer
snip
------------------------------
An earlier article before the final completion weld.
- LRK -
------------------------------
http://www.universetoday.com/
First Orion Capsule forming rapidly
May 25th, 2010
Written by Ken Kremer
The first Orion crew capsule is rapidly taking shape as assembly work to construct the skeletal framework of the first pathfinder Orion capsule – the Ground Test Article – or GTA, is nearing completion.
The Lockheed Martin team building Orion is just one weld away from completing the framework of an Orion cabin at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Precision welding to join together the final large skeletal segments (see my earlier report) has proceeded well according to Lockheed managers I spoke with.
“The Orion capsule is the Congressionally approved program of record and we are moving forward with it”, says Larry Price, Lockheed’s Orion Deputy Program Manager in an interview with me. “Our work is continuing with the funding which is still approved until September 2010. Orion is a very functional vehicle. All subsystems will be state of the art.
“Orion is not Apollo on Steroids”, Price emphasized.
snip
------------------------------
Will follow how Orion is finally used and in what configuration.
Some information about Dr. Kremer.
- LRK -
------------------------------
http://www.
Dr. Ken Kremer
Dr. Ken Kremer is a research scientist and freelance science journalist (Princeton, NJ) whose articles and space exploration images have appeared in magazines, books and on websites, including Astronomy Picture of the Day, ABC News, Aviation Week, Spaceflight Now, Spaceflight, New Scientist, The Planetary Society, Universe Today, Science News, International Year of Astronomy, 2010 Year in Space Calendar, NASA and the covers of Aviation Week & Space Technology, Spaceflight and the Explorers Club magazines.
snip
------------------------------
Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.
Comments accepted here - http://lunar-update.blogspot.
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/
==============================
http://www.washingtonmonthly.
The Wealth of Constellations
Can the free market save the space program?
By Charles Homans
Marine Major General Charles F. Bolden has made a career of taking on daunting assignments. After growing up black in segregated South Carolina, Bolden spent his teenage years badgering congressmen into helping him gain admittance to the nearly all-white U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. Shipped out to Southeast Asia in 1972, he flew more than a hundred missions over Vietnam and Laos. After the war he spent a few years test-flying experimental aircraft, then—why not?—became an astronaut. When the space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral in January 1986, sixteen days before the Challenger explosion, Bolden was in the pilot’s seat. So when President Barack Obama was looking to fill the top job at the National eronautics and Space Administration last May, the ex-astronaut, then sixty-two and retired, seemed a natural choice. NASA was four years into its most ambitious project since Apollo, a plan to send American astronauts back to the moon and, in time, on to Mars. It needed a leader equal to the challenge.
Nine months later, however, Bolden received an assignment even tougher than overseeing the mission: getting rid of it.
snip
==============================
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_
Orion Spacecraft Takes Shape
The Orion crew exploration vehicle took shape as the two halves of the crew module were fused together at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La.
The Lockheed Martin Orion team welded the forward cone assembly to the aft barrel assembly using the next generation friction stir weld process.
The 445-inch long weld is the longest such weld of its kind and will ensure optimal structural integrity for the harsh environments of space flight.
› View images -
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_
snip
==============================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
==============================
NASA's First Lunar Orion Test Capsule Built
Ken Kremer
Monday, June 7, 2010
The GTA is the essential forerunner of a crewed spacecraft which NASA had intended to utilize for a return of human footsteps to the Moon, and then to Mars and beyond until President Obama proposed to wholly terminate Project Constellation, including Orion, in his initial 2011 budget proposal and radically alter NASA's future path.
"The Orion GTA is the flight test article that was designed in support of Lunar Missions," explained Mark McCloskey to me during my fact finding visit to Michoud to observe the capsule first hand. McCloskey is the Lockheed Martin Senior Production Manager for Orion at Michoud.
McCloskey and other senior Lockheed representatives spoke to me in depth about Orion development at NASA's Michoud manufacturing facility in New Orleans. Michoud is also the production site for the Space Shuttle's huge External Tanks, which I'll report on separately.
This GTA test vehicle is not the de-scoped and stripped down, unmanned " rescue lifeboat" recently proposed by President Obama at his April 15 space policy speech at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) where he resuscitated the Orion project, but with limited objectives and functionality.
snip
------------------------------
Another article with more information.
- LRK -
------------------------------
http://nasatech.net/
Orion Ground Test Article (GTA)
by Ken Kremer
snip
------------------------------
An earlier article before the final completion weld.
- LRK -
------------------------------
http://www.universetoday.com/
First Orion Capsule forming rapidly
May 25th, 2010
Written by Ken Kremer
The first Orion crew capsule is rapidly taking shape as assembly work to construct the skeletal framework of the first pathfinder Orion capsule – the Ground Test Article – or GTA, is nearing completion.
The Lockheed Martin team building Orion is just one weld away from completing the framework of an Orion cabin at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Precision welding to join together the final large skeletal segments (see my earlier report) has proceeded well according to Lockheed managers I spoke with.
“The Orion capsule is the Congressionally approved program of record and we are moving forward with it”, says Larry Price, Lockheed’s Orion Deputy Program Manager in an interview with me. “Our work is continuing with the funding which is still approved until September 2010. Orion is a very functional vehicle. All subsystems will be state of the art.
“Orion is not Apollo on Steroids”, Price emphasized.
snip
------------------------------
Will follow how Orion is finally used and in what configuration.
Some information about Dr. Kremer.
- LRK -
------------------------------
http://www.
Dr. Ken Kremer
Dr. Ken Kremer is a research scientist and freelance science journalist (Princeton, NJ) whose articles and space exploration images have appeared in magazines, books and on websites, including Astronomy Picture of the Day, ABC News, Aviation Week, Spaceflight Now, Spaceflight, New Scientist, The Planetary Society, Universe Today, Science News, International Year of Astronomy, 2010 Year in Space Calendar, NASA and the covers of Aviation Week & Space Technology, Spaceflight and the Explorers Club magazines.
snip
------------------------------
Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.
Comments accepted here - http://lunar-update.blogspot.
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/
==============================
http://www.washingtonmonthly.
The Wealth of Constellations
Can the free market save the space program?
By Charles Homans
Marine Major General Charles F. Bolden has made a career of taking on daunting assignments. After growing up black in segregated South Carolina, Bolden spent his teenage years badgering congressmen into helping him gain admittance to the nearly all-white U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. Shipped out to Southeast Asia in 1972, he flew more than a hundred missions over Vietnam and Laos. After the war he spent a few years test-flying experimental aircraft, then—why not?—became an astronaut. When the space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral in January 1986, sixteen days before the Challenger explosion, Bolden was in the pilot’s seat. So when President Barack Obama was looking to fill the top job at the National eronautics and Space Administration last May, the ex-astronaut, then sixty-two and retired, seemed a natural choice. NASA was four years into its most ambitious project since Apollo, a plan to send American astronauts back to the moon and, in time, on to Mars. It needed a leader equal to the challenge.
Nine months later, however, Bolden received an assignment even tougher than overseeing the mission: getting rid of it.
snip
==============================
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_
Orion Spacecraft Takes Shape
The Orion crew exploration vehicle took shape as the two halves of the crew module were fused together at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La.
The Lockheed Martin Orion team welded the forward cone assembly to the aft barrel assembly using the next generation friction stir weld process.
The 445-inch long weld is the longest such weld of its kind and will ensure optimal structural integrity for the harsh environments of space flight.
› View images -
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_
snip
==============================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
==============================
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