NASAfacts

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is equipped with several facilities to prepare the agency’s Orion spacecraft for flight and to process the spacecraft af-ter its return from deep space.

Kennedy’s facilities will support the factory assem-bly of the spacecraft, launch operations and hazard-ous processing before and after the mission. Recent renovation of most facilities was overseen by NASA’s Orion and Exploration Ground systems (EGS) Pro-grams and now provide Kennedy with an end-to-end capability the center has not had before. Previously, the spacecraft arrived at Kennedy fully assembled and the center’s job was to put on the finishing touches and launch the mission.

Operations & Checkout Building High Bay

When Orion arrives to Kennedy following initial manufacturing at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facil-

ity in New Orleans, it is placed in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building (O&C). The O&C contains a large room, called a high bay that operates as a high-tech factory, where spacecraft will be as-sembled and readied for new missions to deep space destinations. The high bay includes unique tooling stations, test fixtures, chambers and clean rooms for the buildup and testing of the spacecraft.

Orion assembly will consist of joining the crew mod-ule, crew module adapter, and the service module which will carry the consumables astronauts will need for missions into deep space. The Orion ve-hicle that launched atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket on Exploration Flight Test-1 in 2014 also was processed, tested and prepared for launch in the O&C.

The O&C has played a major role in NASA’s space-flight history. It was the first building finished at Ken-nedy and has housed the Astronaut Crew Quarters since the mid-1960s where the Gemini astronauts

Orion Facilities

A variety of space hardware for the Orion crew module is in view in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building high bay at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Orion is undergoing processing to prepare it for its first uncrewed integrated flight atop the Space Launch System rocket on Exploration Mission-1. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

John F. Kennedy Space CenterKennedy Space Center, FL 32899

www.nasa.gov

FS-2018-01-026-KSC

stayed prior to launch. The high bay underwent an extensive, two-year renovation starting in 2007 to outfit the facility for assembly of the Orion spacecraft. Space Florida and NASA provided the funds for a full refurbishment that involved ev-erything from replacing the entire facility support infrastruc-ture to new overhead cranes to support manufacturing and assembly work. General contractor Hensel Phelps performed the work.

Multi-Payload Processing FacilityNext stop for the Orion spacecraft is the Multi-Payload Pro-cessing Facility (MPPF). The MPPF is equipped to fuel the Ori-on spacecraft with hazardous propellants and other fluids the spacecraft and astronauts will need for the journey around the Moon and deep space missions.

When Orion returns to Earth after its mission it will be trans-ported to the MPPF, where specialized equipment will be used to remove unused hazardous propellants from its tanks during spacecraft postflight processing.

Launch Abort System Facility

After fueling in the MPPF, the Orion spacecraft will be moved to the Launch Abort System Facility (LASF), The 44-foot-tall Launch Abort System (LAS) will be positioned on top of Orion for launch and ascent into orbit. The LAS has a solid-fueled rocket system that will activate in the unlikely case that an emergency occurs and the astronauts’ safety is threatened during launch or ascent. In that case, the LAS will ignite and lift the crew module and its crew away from the launch vehicle with more thrust than the Atlas booster that launched John Glenn into orbit in 1962.

The LAS is prepared horizontally inside the LASF. The facility is taller than many processing facilities at Kennedy to allow clearance for vertical assembly of the Orion spacecraft with the LAS. The LASF has cranes and other equipment needed to integrate the system during launch processing. After the LAS is integrated with Orion, the entire stack is moved to High Bay 3 in the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building, where it is lifted and secured atop NASA’s Space Launch System rocket on the mo-bile launcher.

The completed SLS/Orion stack will be transported atop the mobile launcher on crawler-transporter-2 to Launch Pad 39B for liftoff on deep space missions, including to the Moon and Mars.

These unique facilities at Kennedy will play a significant role in processing Orion spacecraft for ambitious missions far beyond Earth orbit.

Above: The service platform for Orion spacecraft processing is in view inside the Multi-Payload Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. To the left are several pneumatic panels. The MPPF will be used for offline processing and fueling of the Orion spacecraft and service module stack before launch. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Right: A view of the high bay inside the Launch Abort System Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Orion’s launch abort system will be assembled in this facility. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett