The Orion spacecraft, which will fly four people around the moon, arrived at the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida late Thursday, ready to be mounted on top of its rocket for launch early next year.
The overnight move covered about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from one facility to another at the Florida Space Launch Center. NASA and its contractors are continuing preparations for the Artemis II mission after the White House approved the program as an exception to operate amid the ongoing government shutdown that began Oct. 1.
Continued work could give Artemis II the opportunity to launch as early as February 5 next year. Astronauts Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen will first people to fly on the Orion spacecrafta car that had been in development for almost two decades. The crew of Artemis II will make history with their 10-day flight, becoming the first people to travel to the vicinity of the Moon since 1972.
Where things stand
The Lockheed Martin-designed Orion spacecraft has stopped at Kennedy several times in the past few months since leaving the facility in May.
The capsule first moved to a fueling station, where experts filled it with hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide fuel that will power Orion's main engine and steering thrusters on its flight to and from the Moon. At the same facility, teams loaded high-pressure helium and ammonia into Orion's propulsion and thermal control systems.
The next stop was a nearby building where the launch abort system was installed on the Orion spacecraft. The tower's abort system will tear the capsule away from the rocket in the event of a launch failure. Orion stands approximately 67 feet (20 meters) tall, and its service module, crew module and abort tower are integrated together.
Teams at Kennedy also installed four pointed panels that will serve as an aerodynamic shield over the Orion crew capsule during the first few minutes of launch.
The Orion spacecraft, with its launch abort system and pointed panels installed, was seen inside the launch abort system last month at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
Photo: NASA/Frank Michaud.
Then it was time to move Orion to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), where a separate team had been working all year to package NASA's Space Launch System rocket elements. In the coming days, cranes will lift the spaceship, weighing 78,000 lb (35 metric tons)dozens of floors above the VAB's central aisle, then up and through a transom into the building's northeast high bay to descend on top of the SLS heavy rocket.
