NASA’s Space Launch System Update: Exploring Deep Space – Built for Exploration

NASA’s deep space exploration system development programs continue to make progress on the agency’s journey to Mars.
In the final months of 2015, engineers continued welding together the underlying structure of the Orion crew module for Exploration Mission-1, tested how well astronauts can get in and out of Orion’s seats and saw the delivery of a structural representation of Orion’s service module to Ohio for testing. The ground systems team at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where Orion will launch atop the Space Launch System rocket, continued building the mobile launcher, including testing some of the umbilicals that will fuel the rocket while it’s on the launch pad, and installed both a communications tracker and a work platform in the Vehicle Assembly Building.The Space Launch System Program performed welding operations on a test article for the launch vehicle stage adapter as well as confidence welding of the core stage, installed a RS-25 rocket engine for Exploration Mission-2 into a test stand and continued construction on a liquid hydrogen structural test stand.