NASA\u2019s Space Launch System <\/a>rocket, NASA\u2019s Orion spacecraft quite literally is the foundation on which the Artemis II mission rests. Getting it ready for flight has been a decades-long process, according to Orion Program Manager Howard Hu, who says the spacecraft was conceived in the early 2000s for NASA\u2019s Constellation program. When Constellation was cancelled in 2010, Orion\u2019s design was revised and repurposed for the Artemis program.\u201cWe\u2019ve had a subsequent set of flight tests since then,\u201d explains Hu, who says Orion has undergone three significant flight tests since 2010, culminating in the November 2022 launch of Artemis I \u2014 an uncrewed moon-orbiting mission that served as a trial run for Artemis II. \u201cWe\u2019ve made a tremendous effort to make sure we\u2019re building a very safe, reliable and capable spacecraft.\u201dSince the success of Artemis I, the Orion team has been focused on building and testing the next iteration of the spacecraft that will fly for Artemis II. Every component of the spacecraft has been tested both individually and collectively as part of an integrated system, according to Hu, who says Orion has undergone vacuum, thermal and acoustic vibrational testing to make sure it can withstand the rigors of launch and deep space.Among the most consequential tests are those components the crew will need that have been added to Orion explicitly for Artemis II, including the displays and hand controllers they will use to manage and interface with the spacecraft, as well as the life support system that will provide breathable air for them in space.\u201cWe\u2019re not very far from the getting to the launchpad, so we\u2019re really excited,\u201d Hu says. \u201cThere\u2019s still work to be done, but we\u2019re doing it.\u201d<\/p>\nCoaching the Crew<\/p>\n
The crew \u2014 including two backup crew members, NASA astronaut Andre Douglas and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jenni Gibbons \u2014 have been just as busy as the people assembling their spacecraft.\u201cAs scientists, we know it\u2019s important to check our systems \u2026 and the human is a very complex system,\u201d explains Hawkins, who says crew members have been following a rigorous fitness routine to build physical strength for the mission while working with mental health professionals to build mental and emotional strengthWith launch fast approaching, however, the most critical training lately has been focused on operating the Orion spacecraft. On July 31, for example, the crew entered their spacecraft in their flight suits for a multiday training \u2014 a dress rehearsal of sorts \u2014 at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.\u201cThey\u2019re going to don their flight suits, and they\u2019re going to practice the activity of actually getting into the spacecraft, checking out the systems, checking out communications capability and doing all the things needed to get \u2026 out of the spacecraft,\u201d Hawkins said days prior to the training. \u201cSo, they\u2019ve been super busy.\u201dAdds Hu, \u201cThe crew need to be experts in operating the spacecraft and responding to issues with the spacecraft, and they need to be able to interject when necessary if they have to take over certain automated systems. That\u2019s what they\u2019re working hard on as we lead up to flight.\u201dThe crew also has practiced launch-day operations at night in the event of an evening launch and has even rehearsed recovery operations at sea alongside the U.S. Navy, which is tasked with retrieving the crew upon its return to Earth.\u201cWe want to make sure they\u2019re comfortable and confident that they know what to do in every scenario \u2014 if things go well, as well as if something goes unexpectedly,\u201d notes Hawkins, who says Artemis II is on track to launch on time not in spite of all the training and testing that\u2019s required, but because of it. \u201cAll the preparation we do is to make sure that this mission is executed in a flawless manner. \u2026 For that reason, we fully expect to be able to meet the timeline that we have laid out for this mission.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt Alderton \u00a0|\u00a0 Studio Gannett The last time human beings were anywhere near the moon, Richard Nixon was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[4173,6626,137527,21325,718,3,137528,13470,13471,5573,32744,3504,137526,137530,79,193,16574,13561,137529,14521,74,10353],"class_list":["post-252983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-astronauts","tag-astronomy","tag-flack","tag-launch","tag-nasa","tag-news","tag-nixon","tag-overall","tag-overall-positive","tag-positive","tag-richard","tag-richard-nixon","tag-roberta","tag-roberta-flack","tag-science","tag-space","tag-space-launch-system","tag-space-technology","tag-studiog-xtr","tag-system","tag-technology","tag-technology-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}