First Orion spacecraft arrives at Kennedy Space Center

NASA is planning the first test of the new Orion spacecraft for 2014. One of the preparations for the test flight is actually getting the Orion spacecraft to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. On Monday of this week, the first of the next-generation Orion spacecraft arrived at Kennedy. Orion is NASA’s first manned spacecraft since it retired the shuttle fleet last year.

Orion is designed to ferry shuttle astronauts not only into low earth orbit, but to nearby asteroids and possibly even to Mars. NASA is using private companies, like SpaceX, that can ferry supplies and astronauts to the ISS. That frees up NASA’s manpower to focus on the goal of getting a human to an asteroid by 2025. NASA also has a goal of getting a human to Mars by the 2030s.

NASA plans for Orion’s first test flight will see the capsule fly 15 times higher than the ISS, to roughly 3600 miles above the Earth’s surface in 2014. That flight test is being called Exploration Flight Test-1 and will use NASA’s next-generation rocket booster dubbed Space Launch System rocket. The Orion capsule is the future of NASA’s manned space program.

[via PC Mag]

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Boeing hits new milestone for Crew Space Transportation spacecraft

SpaceX has its Dragon capsule in orbit right now, and testing is apparently going very well. One of SpaceX’s competitors to get NASA business taking astronauts and cargo into Earth orbit is aerospace giant Boeing. Boeing is also working on its own capsule for crew and cargo called the CST-100. That Boeing space capsule has reached a milestone this week with the successful completion of the software Preliminary Design Review.

The Preliminary Design Review for the software is a very important part of the spacecraft program. The software is used during lunch, orbital maneuvering, docking and separating from the ISS, reentry, and landing. The software is one of the most important components of the spacecraft. Boeing says that the rigorous design process followed in the design of the spacecraft and software will ensure that there is minimal risk of certification noncompliance that would result in a need to redesign the spacecraft delaying the project and running over budget.

Boeing says that with the successful completion of its software PDR, the CST-100 program is on schedule to complete the remaining development milestones the next few months. The team is also on schedule for propellant tank demonstration test and an orbital maneuvering/attitude control engine hot fire test to provide additional data on spacecraft elements. The first test flight for the CST-100 is expected in 2015 to 2016. If all goes well SpaceX, and its Dragon capsule may be ferrying cargo and astronauts the ISS before Boeing has its first flight test.

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