Agency Hopes Orion Will Carry Crew To ISS, Beyond
NASA has taken a major step toward
building the next crew exploration vehicle by completing the Orion
Project's preliminary design review, or PDR. Orion is being
designed to carry astronauts to the International Space Station and
other destinations.
The preliminary design review is one of a series of checkpoints
that occurs in the design life cycle of a complex engineering
project before hardware manufacturing can begin. As the review
process progresses, details of the vehicle's design are assessed to
ensure the overall system is safe and reliable for flight and meets
all NASA mission requirements.
The Orion features a capsule-shaped crew module designed for
maximum crew operability and safety, a service module housing
utility systems and propulsion components and a launch abort system
for improved astronaut safety. The preliminary design review
evaluated the vehicle's capability, as currently designed, to
support three types of missions: flights to the International Space
Station, weeklong missions to the moon and missions to the moon for
up to 210 days.
"This is the successful culmination of all of the design trade
studies and activities to date," said Mark Geyer, manager of the
Orion Project Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "As
a project, a program and an agency, we are reviewing the design
maturity, strategy and plans for NASA's next human spacecraft and
agreeing that this is the architecture we are going to build."
Orion Artist's Concept
Teams representing each subsystem of Orion conducted focused
reviews from February to July before proceeding to the overall
vehicle-level review. The preliminary design review lasted about
two months and included reviewers from all 10 NASA field centers to
evaluate the hundreds of design products delivered by the Lockheed
Martin-led industry partnership.
"The Orion vehicle design is much more mature than you might see
on many programs at the PDR checkpoint because we have worked so
closely with our NASA counterparts every step of the way during the
vehicle design phase," said Cleon Lacefield, vice president and
Orion project manager at Lockheed Martin in Denver. "To date we
have completed more than 300 technical reviews, 100 peer reviews
and 18 subsystem design reviews."
Orion Artist's Concept
The PDR process culminated with a review board that concluded
Aug. 31 and established the basis for proceeding to the critical
design phase of Orion. Participants identified technical and
management challenges and addressed ways to reduce potential risks
as the project goes forward.
NASA will continue the review process with an independent
agency-level evaluation to validate the PDR results and gain formal
approval to transition the project into the next life cycle
phase.