NASA's Orion Spacecraft Proves Sound Under Pressure

June 6, 2013

Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov

Brandi Dean
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
brandi.k.dean@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 13-174

NASA'S ORION SPACECRAFT PROVES SOUND UNDER PRESSURE

WASHINGTON -- After a month of being poked, prodded and pressurized in
ways that mimicked the stresses of spaceflight, NASA's Orion crew
module successfully passed its static loads tests on Wednesday.

When Orion launches on Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), which is
targeted for September 2014, it will travel farther from Earth than
any spacecraft built for humans in more than 40 years. The spacecraft
will fly about 3,600 miles above Earth's surface and return at speeds
of approximately 25,000 mph. During the test, Orion will experience
an array of stresses, or loads, including launch and reentry, the
vacuum of space, and several dynamic events that will jettison
hardware away from the spacecraft and deploy parachutes.

To ensure Orion will be ready for its flight test next year, engineers
at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida built a 20-foot-tall static
loads test fixture for the crew module with hydraulic cylinders that
slowly push or pull on the vehicle, depending on the type of load
being simulated. The fixture produced 110 percent of the load caused
by eight different types of stress Orion will experience during
EFT-1. More than 1,600 strain gauges recorded how the vehicle
responded. The loads ranged from as little as 14,000 pounds to as
much as 240,000 pounds.

"The static loads campaign is our best method of testing to verify
what works on paper will work in space," said Charlie Lundquist,
NASA's Orion crew and service module manager at the agency's Johnson
Space Center in Houston. "This is how we validate our design."

In addition to the various loads it sustained, the Orion crew module
also was pressurized to simulate the effect of the vacuum in space.
This simulation allowed engineers to confirm it would hold its
pressurization in a vacuum and verify repairs made to superficial
cracks in the vehicle's rear bulkhead caused by previous pressure
testing in November.

The November test revealed insufficient margin in an area of the
bulkhead that was unable to withstand the stress of pressurization.
Armed with data from that test, engineers were able to reinforce the
design to ensure structural integrity and validate the fix during
this week's test.

To repair the cracks, engineers designed brackets that spread the
stress of being pressurized to other areas of the module that are
structurally stronger. During these tests Orion was successfully
pressurized to 110 percent of what it would experience in space,
demonstrating it is capable of performing as necessary during EFT-1.

For information about Orion, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/orion


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