Ross Wilkers
Lockheed Martin and NASA have entered program scripts into the crew module of a spacecraft the company is building for the agency ahead of its scheduled launch in one year.
Engineers from Lockheed and NASA worked in the Kennedy Space Center’s test launch control center to finish the first round of testing by powering on the Orion spacecraft’s avionics inside the crew module, Lockheed said Monday.
The company is the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft.
Cleon Lacefield, Lockheed’s program manager for Orion, said the company and NASA have worked over the past year to develop, integrate and test technology for the crew module.
According to Lockheed, Orion accepted commands from the control center, read and accessed data from other channels and sent back responses to the ground during the test.
NASA and Lockheed will evaluate power systems on Orion over the next six months as electronics and other components are integrated into the space probe.
The space agency plans to send Orion 3,600 miles away from Earth’s low orbit and then bring the capsule back to Earth on the same day.
