Fwd: Orion on track for 2021 asteroid mission, KSC chief says

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: April 16, 2013 7:02:23 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Orion on track for 2021 asteroid mission, KSC chief says

 

 

     Apr. 16, 2013 6:59 AM   

Orion on track for 2021 asteroid mission, KSC chief says

Orion progress bolsters NASA hopes: Three years to the day after President Obama directed NASA to send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025, NASA is making marked progress toward that goal. By Craig Rubadoux and Tim Walters Posted April 15, 2013

Orion progress bolsters NASA hopes

Written by

Todd Halvorson

FLORIDA TODAY

 

Purchase Image Zoom

Robert Cabana, the director of Kennedy Space Center, said Monday that NASA will be ready to send an Orion spacecraft and its crew to an asteroid by 2021. / CRAIG RUBADOUX/FLORIDA TODAY

CAPE CANAVERAL — President Barack Obama's push to accelerate a human expedition to an asteroid is a daunting gauntlet for NASA, but one that can be accomplished, agency officials said Monday.

"This is not going to be easy," said Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana, who piloted two shuttle flights and served as mission commander on two others.

NASA will have to develop a number of new or emerging technologies to get the job done.

"We have lots of work ahead of us on that challenging and complex mission," said Dan Dumbacher, NASA's deputy associate administrator for exploration system development. "But NASA is up to the challenge, and the team you see here is ready to take it on."

Cabana, Dumbacher and others gathered in the same building where President Obama – three years ago Monday – challenged NASA to send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025.

President Obama's 2014 spending plan, which was delivered to Congress last week, includes a proposal that effectively would move that goal up to 2021.

A robotic spacecraft would be sent to snare a small asteroid and haul it to an orbit on the far side of the moon in 2019. Astronauts on the first piloted Orion flight then would rendezvous with the ancient space rock and return samples to Earth.

NASA's plan for that first Orion flight had been to send a crew on a loop around the moon. Now astronauts would also visit an asteroid – a first in terms of space exploration.

"I think it's really neat that the first time we fly (Orion) with crew, they've got some place to go with it, and something to accomplish with it," Cabana said. "We're excited about it. Absolutely."

Cabana, Dumbacher and others briefed reporters on progress being made with the Orion crew exploration vehicle, the heavy-lift rocket that will launch it, and associated ground systems at KSC.

The venue: Lockheed Martin's Orion production facility, a renovated operations and checkout building used during the Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs.

When Obama laid down his 2025 asteroid challenge, the facility was a void bay. Now it's a fully operational factory where an Apollo-style Orion capsule is being assembled for flight.

The first unmanned test flight of an Orion spacecraft is scheduled to launch in September 2014 on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket at Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Now being assembled in the Orion production facility, the spacecraft will fly a loop around Earth at an altitude of 3,600 miles and then re-enter the atmosphere at a velocity that will simulate a return from an asteroid, the moon or Mars.

Contact Halvorson at thalvorson@floridatoday.com

 

Copyright © 2013 www.floridatoday.com. All rights reserved. 

 

===============================================================

 

 

Apr 15, 2013   |  

Progress on Orion capsule keeps date with asteroid on track

Orion progress bolsters NASA hopes: Three years to the day after President Obama directed NASA to send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025, NASA is making marked progress toward that goal. By Craig Rubadoux and Tim Walters Posted April 15, 2013

Written by

Todd Halvorson

FLORIDA TODAY

Zoom

Built by Lockheed Martin, the Orion spacecraft will ferry astronauts on missions to asteroids and other destinations beyond Earth orbit. / NASA illustration

CAPE CANAVERAL – Three years after President Obama directed NASA to send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025, NASA is making phenomenal progress toward that goal, agency officials said today.

What's more, NASA is thrilled with the prospect of moving up that goal by four years as proposed in the 2014 budget delivered to Congress by the White House last week, officials said.

"We have lots of work ahead of us on that challenging and complex mission," said Dan Dumbacher, NASA's deputy associate administrator for exploration system development. "But NASA is up to the challenge and the team you see here is ready to take it on."

Dumbacher and other NASA officials gathered at Kennedy Space Center in the same building where President Obama issued the 2025 asteroid challenge three years ago today.

KSC Director Robert Cabana, a former astronaut, noted that the building, an empty high bay in April 2010, is now a fully operations production facility for NASA's Orion crew exploration vehicle. Built by Lockheed Martin, the Orion spacecraft will ferry astronauts on missions to asteroids and other destinations beyond Earth orbit.

President Obama's 2014 budget includes a proposal to lasso an asteroid with a robotic spacecraft and tow it back to an orbit on the far side of the moon. Astronauts on the first piloted Orion spaceflight in 2021 then would rendezvous with the ancient space rock and return samples to Earth.

The first test flight of an Orion spacecraft is scheduled to launch in September 2014 on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket at Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The spacecraft, which is being assembled in the production facility, will fly loop around Earth at an altitude of 3,600 miles and then reenter the atmosphere at a velocity that will simulate a return from an asteroid, the moon or Mars.

---

Contact Halvorson at thalvorson@floridatoday.com

 

 

Copyright © 2013 www.floridatoday.com. All rights reserved. 

 

===============================================================