NASA Transports Orion Capsule To Kennedy Space Center For Testing

NASA flew Orion’s pressure capsule, essentially an empty shell of the spacecraft, aboard it’s Super Guppy aircraft. The jumbo plane can carry over 26 tons worth of cargo and is often used by NASA to ferry large components around the country that would take too long (or be impossible) to ship by land or by sea.

Imagine seeing all that muscle soar through the sky.

Officials with NASA and Lockheed Martin, the lead contractor on the project, joined crews at the eastern New Orleans facility last Wednesday (Jan. 27) to celebrate the completion of the Orion capsule and to send it off. It has been chosen to conduct Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1), which is the first ever integrated flight of Orion and the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Its hinged nose opens at an angle bigger than 200 degrees, allowing people to load and unload large equipment from its front.

One of NASA’s more unique aircraft touched down at Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida. “It will now arrive and we will get them from the transport vehicle … and then we will immediately upload them to their structural assembly tool”.

The Super Guppy, which landed on Monday at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, enables Nasa to fly spacecraft components around the world. “This rocket has the unprecedented power to send Orion to deep space plus room to carry 13 small satellites – payloads that will advance our knowledge about deep space with minimal cost”. Since the test flight will take the Orion close to the Moon, numerous probes are created to do close-up analysis of the lunar surface.

Some of the other systems that need Orion to include the implementation of the EM-1 mission, but are not limited to the following: Electrical energy storage and distribution, heat control, cabin pressure control, control and data processing, communication and tracking, guidance, navigation and control, reaction control system driving and flight software and computer.

Lunar Flashlight from NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate: Will search for ice deposits that ID locations where resources could be extracted on the moon’s surface. That mission launches at the end of 2018. Now, NASA keeps it on hand to carry oversized cargo, and the Orion definitely fits the bill, measuring about 10 feet tall and 16.5 feet in diameter. “So about two years from right now, is when I have to deliver the spacecraft to NASA for ground processing”.

Meanwhile, it is unclear when the Super Guppy will set foot in public again, but it should be expected to be flying around whenever it is needed for other missions.