Artemis II looks to put humans on board the Orion capsule, and just how well the spacecraft can keep its passengers safe is at the top of NASA’s concerns.
Richard Tribou | Orlando Sentinel
“This is a time for our vigilance to continue,” said NASA’s Jim Free, associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, during a Tuesday status update. “We have heartbeats on this mission. We need to make sure that everything we’re doing, we understand the risks that we’re taking, we understand the performance of this vehicle moving forward.”
“It may be just part of what the heat shield is, and what we would expect as we return from the moon,” he said. “So it’s very early for us to think about any potential solutions to address any additional char loss or liberation.” Hu said testing of the crew capsule and service module should both be complete with the two parts joined together and ready to go by late June.
The last part of the puzzle, though, is the Mobile Launcher, which is managed by NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems. The SLS and Orion can’t be stacked for launch until the Mobile Launcher goes through more repairs it suffered from the Artemis I launch, and also completes more testing back at KSC’s Launch Pad 39-B, including testing of the emergency escape system that needs to be in place for the astronauts.
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