Forward Bay Cover Installed On The Artemis-1 Orion

The forward bay cover is installed on the Artemis I spacecraft in the Final Assembly and System Testing (FAST) cell inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout building high bay at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 23, 2020.
It protects the upper part of Orion during the mission and, upon reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, jettison mechanisms will push the forward bay cover a safe distance from the spacecraft, allowing the three main parachutes to unfurl and slow Orion to a safe speed for splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

The first in a series of increasingly complex mission, Artemis I will test the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft as an integrated system prior to crewed flights to the Moon. Under the Artemis program, NASA is planning to land the first woman and next man on the lunar surface by 2024.

KSC-20201123-PH-CSH02_0026 Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston Larger image