NASA's 'Future Spaceport' Achieves Significant Progress in Journey to Mars

In 2016, Sarah Ramsey penned an update on the significant strides being made in the preparation for NASA's first Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft mission.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has provided the service module for the first mission on the SLS rocket. The underlying structure of the Orion crew module arrived at Kennedy Space Center in early February, ready for outfitting.

NASA has completed a comprehensive review of plans for facilities and ground support systems at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, for processing the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft. The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program (GSDO) successfully completed its critical design review (CDR) of the facilities and ground support systems plans in December 2015.

The GSDO program is ensuring that Kennedy Space Center will be ready to receive SLS and Orion flight hardware and process the vehicle for the first flight in 2018. Over the next 18 months, thousands of Orion components will arrive and be installed at Kennedy Space Center.

The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket will be stacked in the Vehicle Assembly Building on a mobile launcher and roll out to Launch Pad 39B atop a modified crawler transporter. The Orion spacecraft will be fueled with propellants in the Multi-Payload Processing Facility at Kennedy prior to stacking atop the rocket.

The launch team will use a new command and control system in the firing room as the clock counts down to liftoff of SLS's first flight. A structural representation of the service module is being tested at NASA's Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio. Engineers conducted a successful solar array wing deployment test on Feb. 29 at NASA's Plum Brook Station.

Mike Bolger, GSDO Program Manager, stated that the team is making remarkable progress transforming Kennedy's facilities for the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft. Bill Hill, deputy associate administrator of NASA's Exploration Systems Development Division, added that modernizing the ground systems for the journey to Mars ensures long-term sustainability and affordability to meet future needs of the multi-use spaceport.

Results from ESA's service module design review, which began this month, will be assessed and incorporated into Orion development and integration plans later this summer. Systems unique to the first crewed flight will be addressed at a review in the fall of 2017.

For more information on Orion, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/orion. For more information on GSDO, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/groundsystems. NASA's journey to Mars is a major focus of the work at Kennedy Space Center, and the GSDO program is ensuring that the center will be ready to receive SLS and Orion flight hardware and process the vehicle for the first flight in 2018.