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NASA's Orion Spacecraft
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WASHINGTON - NASA has established a requirements baseline for the
Orion crew exploration vehicle, bringing America's next human
spacecraft a step closer to construction.
The Orion Project completed its system requirements review in
cooperation with its prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, March 1. The
review marked the first major milestone in the Orion engineering
process and provided the foundation for design, development,
construction and safe operation of the spacecraft that will carry
explorers to Earth orbit, to the moon, and eventually to Mars. The
detailed requirements established in this review will serve as the
basis for ongoing design analysis work and systems testing.
"This is a significant step in the development of a space
transportation system that will expand our horizons to include other
worlds, " said Skip Hatfield, Orion Project manager at NASA's Johnson
Space Center in Houston.
The Orion review followed an overall review of requirements for the
Constellation Program that was completed in November. Similar reviews
are planned later this spring for ground and mission operations
systems that will support Constellation launch systems and space
flight operations ground infrastructure.
"We have now completed program-wide launch vehicle and human
spacecraft system requirements reviews, " said Constellation Program
Manager Jeff Hanley. "These are important pieces of a management and
engineering puzzle that will allow us to accomplish the goal of
putting humans back on the moon."
The Orion requirements data set was reviewed by agency and contractor
scientists and engineers from across the country. More than 1, 700
topics covering all aspects of vehicle performance, design and
qualification were discussed during the course of the formal review.
Once all project-level reviews are complete, the Constellation Program
will hold another full review to update baseline requirements. A
lunar architecture systems review of equipment associated with
surface exploration and science activities on the moon is expected in
the spring of 2009.
For more information about NASA's Constellation Program, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/constellation
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