Orion

Orion spacecraft may not fly with astronauts until 2023

September 16, 2015 Stephen Clark

The first piloted flight of NASA’s Orion space capsule, a vehicle designed to carry astronauts away from Earth for the first time in two generations, may slip from 2021 to 2023, agency officials said Wednesday.

Orion service module still seen as schedule driver

August 3, 2015 Stephen Clark

The pace of the European Space Agency’s development of a power and propulsion module for NASA’s Orion crew capsule will likely determine when an unpiloted test flight of the spaceship and its heavy-lift rocket will take off, NASA officials said last week.

Orbital ATK picks up where it left off with Orion abort system

July 7, 2015 Stephen Clark

Orbital ATK has cinched $188 million in contracts to complete development of the Orion crew capsule’s needle-shaped launch abort system, resuming work stalled in the wake up a major shakeup of NASA’s human spaceflight program by the Obama administration in 2010.

Engineers finding lessons in nearly flawless Orion test flight

February 20, 2015 Stephen Clark

December’s first orbital test flight of NASA’s Orion crew capsule was almost perfect, but engineers are carefully analyzing 600 gigabytes of data recorded on the spacecraft’s trip 3,600 miles into space to see how future missions to an asteroid and Mars could be improved.

Redesign likely needed for Orion airbag system

January 19, 2015 Stephen Clark

Engineers plan to redesign part of the Orion capsule’s self-righting flotation system that only partially engaged as the spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean following an orbital test flight in December, NASA officials said.

Lockheed Martin begins taking apart first flown Orion capsule

January 9, 2015 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Orion spacecraft achieved all but two of 87 demo objectives on its first orbital flight last month, but details on the capsule’s performance will require dismantling the spaceship’s outer skin in a careful procedure designed to keep most of the Orion prototype intact for future testing.

2014’s top stories in spaceflight

December 30, 2014 Spaceflight Now

The year ended with a deluge of big news, reminding us of the risks of spaceflight and the thin margins between success and failure on the final frontier. 2014 was also a year of breakthroughs in the exploration of the solar system and the future of human spaceflight.