Orion

[LG]

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html

Orion Ground Test Vehicle Arrives at Kennedy
The Orion Ground Test Vehicle arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Operations & Checkout (O&C) Facility on April 21. The vehicle traveled more than 1,800 miles from Lockheed Martin's Waterton Facility near Denver, Colo., where it successfully completed a series of rigorous acoustic, modal and vibration tests that simulated launch and spaceflight environments.

The ground test vehicle will now be used for pathfinding operations at the O&C in preparation for the Orion spaceflight test vehicle's arrival this summer. The spaceflight vehicle is currently being fabricated at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La., and is slated for NASA's Exploration Flight Test, or EFT-1, in 2014.

[Salo]

http://www.spacenews.com/civil/120427-orion-helps-lockheed-gains.html

Fri, 27 April, 2012
Orion Work Helps Lockheed Martin Space Systems Post Quarterly Gains[/size]
By Peter B. de Selding

    PARIS — Lockheed Martin Space Systems on April 26 reported modest increases in revenue and profit
for the three months ending March 25, saying sales from work on NASA's Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle
more than overcame the drop in space shuttle revenue after the vehicle's retirement.

    Operating profit rose to 12 percent of revenue as the company successfully eliminated risks from
unnamed government satellite programs despite slightly lower equity earnings from two 50 percent-owned
affiliates, United Launch Alliance and United Space Alliance.

    These joint ventures with Chicago-based Boeing are focused, respectively, on providing launch
services to the U.S. government and providing ground operations that have been reduced with the shuttle's
retirement.

    For the three months ending in March, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, whose major production facilities
are in Sunnyvale, Calif., and Denver, reported revenue of $1.89 billion, up 2 percent from the same period a
year earlier. Operating profit, at 12 percent of revenue, was up from 11.8 percent a year ago.

    In an April 26 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Lockheed Martin said the Space
Systems division's revenue increased by $60 million from work on Orion, which is scheduled to make its
first test flight in 2014.

    The Orion-related increase was partly offset by a $20 million reduction in revenue from work on the space
shuttle's external tank.

    Space Systems division backlog, at $15.4 billion as of March 25, was down 3.8 percent from where it
stood Dec. 31.

    In an April 26 conference call with investors, Lockheed Martin said it was sticking with forecasts that its
Space Systems division would report 2012 sales of between $7.5 billion and $7.8 billion, with an operating
profit margin of 11.8 percent to 12 percent.[/size]

[instml]

ESA Favors Upgrading Orion over Building In-orbit Service Tug

PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) is proposing that its 19 member governments finance development of a module to power NASA's Orion crew transport vehicle and limit work on a competing proposal — a robotic vehicle that would perform multiple tasks in low Earth orbit — to initial studies.

Development of this vehicle, whose chores would include removing dead satellites and rocket stages from orbit, would accelerate starting in 2015, according to the ESA proposal.

The agency also is proposing to build and launch a lunar lander — a project long backed by Germany — that would launch in 2018 and would be followed, in 2022, by a mission to retrieve samples from the Moon's south pole.

Germany, Portugal and Canada have been financing early studies of the lunar lander mission, with Astrium GmbH's Bremen, Germany, division managing the early industrial work.

ESA's proposals are part of the preparations for a late-November meeting of the agency's member governments' ministers to determine Europe's multi-year budget and program priorities. These meetings occur every three or four years.

The route to a final decision on what Europe's future space program will look like includes multiple iterations by ESA based on its governments' indications of what they want to do, and what they can afford.

The current proposals are thus at risk of being modified as ESA governments' financial prospects become clearer.

ESA and NASA have been discussing how ESA might compensate NASA for Europe's 8.3 percent share of the international space station's future operating charges. Until about 2017, the agency is repaying NASA, as the station's general contractor, through launches of European Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) cargo ships to the station.

But with the station partners now all but committed to operating the station at least through 2020, ESA is searching for another "barter element" to succeed ATV.

NASA has said a propulsion module for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle would fill ESA's obligations to NASA, which have been estimated at about 450 million euros ($600 million) over three years.

But several ESA members, notably France and Italy, have argued that the Orion module, which would use ATV-derived technologies, does not provide sufficient technology interest or public impact.

Instead, these governments have proposed development of a vehicle that would perform multiple tasks in low Earth orbit, including debris removal.

According to an ESA document presented to European industry during an April 13 meeting on ESA's future technology requirements, the agency is splitting the difference. The Orion module would be developed immediately for a first flight in 2017, with the low-orbit service vehicle to be limited to technology development studies.

.........

http://www.spacenews.com/civil/042712-esa-favors-upgrading-orion-over-building-in-orbit-service-tug.html

[mefisto_x]

кресла что надо  
http://ow.ly/i/BEuq/original
https://twitter.com/NASA_Orion

[SFN]

кресла что надо  

Каждый раз возникает мысль, что ориононавты будут носить полетные скафандры с пришитыми к ним  "индивидуально моделированными ложементами" )))

[ronatu]

After undergoing a $55 million renovation, the Apollo-era Operation & Checkout (O & C) Building, located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) industrial area, has been transformed into a state-of the-art green assembly multi-purpose-use facility. The renovations are part of a larger effort to not just prepare the space center for crewed deep-space missions, but to modernize many of the historic structures at KSC.
"A lot of the things we did to this building were designed to make it more flexible," said Jim Kemp, director for Lockheed Martin's Orion Assembly Testing and Launch Operations.

http://www.americaspace.org/?p=19982

[instml]

Evaluating the Advanced Crew Escape Suit

NASA astronaut Rex Walheim participated in an evaluation of the Advanced Crew Escape Suit (ACES) in the Active Response Gravity Offload System, or ARGOS, at the Johnson Space Center on Tuesday, June, 5, 2012. The modified ACES suit is fully integrated with Orion life support systems and will be used by crews for ascent and entry, as well as light extra vehicular activities, commonly referred to as spacewalks. The ARGOS system allows an astronaut to be suspended and have full freedom of motion, simulating a microgravity environment. During this test, Walheim evaluated the amount of dexterity the suit would provide for various tasks including translating across handrails, working with tools and entering a spacecraft hatch.

Image Credit: NASA/Radislav Sinyak

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2277.html

[instml]

Orion High-altitude Abort Test Faces Budget-driven Delay

WASHINGTON — A high-altitude test of the Orion deep-space capsule's launch abort system could be delayed two years to accommodate the tighter program budgets anticipated by NASAand Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin.

NASA has yet to set a firm date for the high-altitude test, which is intended to demonstrate that Orion's launch abort system — which performed well in a 2010 pad abort simulation at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico — can propel the capsule to safety if its Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket fails midflight.

Jose Ortiz, NASA's lead systems engineer for the Orion launch abort system at the agency's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., told Space News in a June 21 email that the high-altitude abort test "may move to fiscal year 2018" as "part of a budget proposal that is still being worked."

That message has reached Denver-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems, which had been planning for a 2015 abort test as recently as March. "Because of budget constraints, or the budgets we've been given to plan to, I think that high-altitude abort is now after 2017," John Karas, Lockheed Martin vice president and general manager of human spaceflight, said in a June 19 interview here.

NASA officials have been warning since last year that work on Orion would be slowed to keep pace with the development of SLS and its launch infrastructure. The agency has proposed trimming Orion's $1.2 billion budget back to $1 billion for 2013.With the high-altitude abort test facing at least a budget-driven delay, the Langley team has proposed conducting one or more less-expensive tests in its place. Ortiz said conducting a hot-fire test in 2015 or 2016 would "keep the [launch abort system] project moving forward and help alleviate risk."

NASA's plan for the high-altitude abort test, known officially as Ascent Abort 2, calls for launching an Orion mockup and its top-mounted abort system from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a trajectory simulating an in-flight abort scenario. The flight test would be powered by a special abort-test booster assembled by Dulles, Va.-based Orbital Sciences Corp. from surplus U.S. Air Force solid-rocket motors.

The high-altitude abort is one of two Orion flight tests NASA had been planning to conduct prior to using SLS to send an empty Orion around the Moon in 2017 and repeating the mission in 2021 with a crew onboard.

Karas said Exploration Flight Test 1 — the first orbital launch of an unmanned Orion — remains on schedule for 2014. NASA added $375 million to Lockheed Martin's Orion contract in December for the test flight, which will be launched by a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket.

NASA announced June 21 that U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, among others, would be on hand July 2 to mark the arrival of NASA's first space-bound Orion capsule at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Prior to Orion's launch from nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the Orion production team at Kennedy will install the capsule's thermal protection systems, avionics and other subsystems. NASA says the 2014 test launch will send Orion farther into space than any human spacecraft in more than 40 years. After orbiting the Earth twice, Orion will plunge back toward Earth at speeds close to those it would reach during a return from the Moon.

NASA will use the resulting flight data to evaluate the performance of key Orion systems, including the craft's heat shield and descent systems.

http://www.spacenews.com/civil/120622-orion-abort-test-delay.html

[instml]

NASA Invites Media To Orion Crew Module Arrival At Kennedy

June 22, 2012

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Media representatives are invited to attend an event marking the arrival of NASA's first space-bound Orion spacecraft at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The event will take place at 10 a.m. EDT, Monday, July 2, at Kennedy's Operations and Checkout Building and be carried live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

The Orion spacecraft will carry astronauts farther into the solar system than ever before. It will provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space.

Speakers include:
-- Sen. Bill Nelson
-- NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver
-- NASA Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer
-- NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development Dan Dumbacher
-- NASA Space Launch System Spacecraft and Payload Integration Manager David Beaman
-- NASA Ground Systems Development and Operations Program Manager Pepper Phillips

NASA participants will discuss progress made to-date on final assembly and integration of the spacecraft, which will launch on Exploration Flight Test-1, an uncrewed mission planned for 2014. This test will see Orion travel farther into space than any human spacecraft has gone in more than 40 years. In advance of its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., the Orion production team will apply heat shielding thermal protection systems, avionics and other subsystems to the spacecraft.

Additionally, NASA will host an interactive session from 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with agency leaders and Orion Program managers to answer questions from followers of NASA's social media accounts. Followers on Twitter can ask a question during the event using the hashtag #askNASA. On NASA Facebook and Google+, a comment thread will open for questions the morning of the event.

Journalists must arrive at Kennedy's Press Site by 8:30 a.m., Monday, July 2, for transportation to the Operations and Checkout Building for a tour and the ceremony. Badges for the event can be picked up at the Kennedy Space Center Badging Office on State Road 405.

International journalists must apply for credentials by 5 p.m., Sunday, June 24, to cover the event. For U.S. journalists, the deadline to apply is 5 p.m., Thursday, June 28. All media accreditation requests must be submitted online at: https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

In 2017, Orion will be launched by NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), a heavy-lift rocket that will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS will enable new missions of exploration and expand human presence across the solar system.

Likewise, NASA's Ground Systems Development and Operations Program, managed at Kennedy, is preparing to process and launch the next-generation vehicles and spacecraft designed to achieve NASA's goals for space exploration.

The Orion crew module pressure vessel was built at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston manages the Orion Program. SLS is managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program at Kennedy, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/groundsystems

For more information on the Space Launch System, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/sls

For more information about the Orion Program, visit: www.nasa.gov/orion  

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/jun/HQ-M12-118_Orion_Arrival.html

[Александр Ч.]

Readying Orion for Flight

The NASA team at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans has completed the final weld on the first space-bound Orion capsule. The Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) Orion will be shipped to the Kennedy Space Center for final assembly and checkout operations.

The EFT-1 flight will take Orion to an altitude of more than 3,600 miles, more than 15 times farther away from Earth than the International Space Station. Orion will return home at a speed of 25,000 miles, almost 5,000 miles per hour faster than any human spacecraft. It will mimic the return conditions that astronauts experience as they come home from voyages beyond low Earth orbit. As Orion reenters the atmosphere, it will endure temperatures up to 4,000 degrees F., higher than any human spacecraft since astronauts returned from the moon.

Image Credit: NASA/Eric Bordelon

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2290.html

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Space-bound Orion capsule to arrive in Florida next week

Lockheed Martin Corp. is preparing to ship the pressure shell for the first space-bound Orion capsule from a Louisiana factory to the Kennedy Space Center, where it will be readied for liftoff on an orbital test flight in 2014.

Technicians at Lockheed Martin's Michoud plant in New Orleans completed the final weld on the Orion spacecraft's core structure Thursday. Arrival at the Kennedy Space Center is scheduled for July 2.

Officials do not expect any impact to the shipment plans from Tropical Storm Debby, which is swamping Florida with flooding rains this week. Forecasters expect the system to move over the Atlantic Ocean by the end of the week.

The Orion capsule's first voyage in space - called Exploration Flight Test 1 - will verify the spacecraft's heat shield during re-entry at speeds mimicking what the capsule will experience on subsequent missions to the moon, asteroids, or other deep space destinations.

Speeds during the craft's re-entry will reach more than 20,000 mph as it plunges back to Earth from a peak altitude of 3,000 miles. NASA officials say the Orion spacecraft will experience temperatures up to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit during re-entry.

The EFT-1 mission will blast off on a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket in 2014.

ULA is modifying the Delta 4 rocket's launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for the Orion test flight. The company is changing the configuration of the pad's work platforms and adding a new swing arm to reach the Orion spacecraft on top of the powerful booster.

Lockheed Martin and United Space Alliance employees will work on the Orion spacecraft inside the Operations and Checkout Building at the space center in the same high bay used to prepare Apollo missions for launch to the moon.

Technicians will install avionics, structural panels and a heat shield on the 16.5-foot-diameter capsule. Engineers will fabricate a mock-up of the Orion service module, the section which would house gas tanks and an engine on crewed flights.

An inert launch abort system will be attached atop the Orion spacecraft, but it will be inactive during liftoff, with only its jettison motors armed to separate the needle-shaped tower from the Delta 4 rocket during ascent.

Lockheed Martin is conducting the EFT-1 mission under contract to NASA.

The Orion spacecraft - also called the multipurpose crew vehicle - is NASA's next human-rated spacecraft designed for astronaut voyages beyond low Earth orbit.

Piloted Orion flights will blast off on the Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket, which is scheduled for its first test flight in 2017. NASA's schedule calls for the first crewed Orion mission in 2021.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1206/26orion/

[instml]

First Space-Bound Orion on Its Way to Kennedy

A major milestone has been achieved for NASA's Orion program with the first Orion destined for space being shipped to the Kennedy Space Center. Construction on the spacecraft was finished at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana this week, and final outfitting and heat shield installation will take place at KSC.

This spacecraft will fly on Exploration Flight Test-1, an unmanned test that is scheduled two years from now. The EFT-1 flight will take Orion to an altitude of more than 3,600 miles, more than 15 times farther away from Earth than the International Space Station. Orion will return home at a speed of 25,000 miles per hour, almost 5,000 miles per hour faster than any human spacecraft. It will mimic the return conditions that astronauts experience as they come home from voyages beyond low Earth orbit. As Orion reenters the atmosphere, it will endure temperatures up to 4,000 degrees F., higher than any human spacecraft since astronauts returned from the moon.

This first Orion will fly atop a Delta IV Heavy, a rocket operated by United Launch Alliance. While this launch vehicle will provide sufficient lift for the EFT-1 flight plan, NASA's SLS rocket will be needed for the vast distances of future exploration missions.

Following EFT-1, the first integrated flight test will launch an uncrewed Orion on the SLS in 2017. That test will put the entire integrated exploration system through its paces. The Orion spacecraft will have the capability to carry astronauts to the moon, asteroids, Mars and other deep space destinations.

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/mpcv/orion_kennedy.html

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/mpcv/gallery/flight_test_vehicle_testing/index.html

[instml]

NASA shows off first Orion capsule with KSC ceremony
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1207/02orion/

NASA Unveils Orion During Ceremony

The Orion capsule that will make the first flight test into space was celebrated Monday morning as the cornerstone of a new era of exploration for America's space program.



The spacecraft's aluminum-alloy crew pressure module arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, June 29, where it will be built up into a fully functioning spacecraft ahead of a test flight slated for 2014.

"This starts a new, exciting chapter in this nation's great space exploration story," said Lori Garver, NASA deputy administrator. "Today we are lifting our spirits to new heights."

Orion will be the most advanced spacecraft ever designed. It will provide emergency abort capability, sustain astronauts during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space.

The 2014 uncrewed flight, called Exploration Flight Test-1 or EFT-1, will be loaded with a wide variety of instruments to evaluate how the spacecraft behaves during launch, in space and the through the searing heat of reentry.

Later Orion spacecraft will take astronauts on missions to destinations far beyond Earth, such as to an asteroid and Mars.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to Mars," proclaimed U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who joined Garver and other officials to welcome the Orion spacecraft. "We know the Orion capsule is a critical part of the system that's going to take us there."

Designed with astronauts in mind, Orion will take crews beyond low-Earth orbit for the first time since 1972, when Apollo 17 completed the last moon landing. The Space Launch System, or SLS -- a gigantic rocket akin to the Saturn V that launched the Apollo spacecraft -- is being developed to launch future Orion missions to deep space. The first launch of the SLS, with Orion atop, is scheduled for 2017.

Astronaut Rex Walheim, who flew on the final space shuttle mission and has had a leading role in the development of Orion, said the capsule can be the principal spacecraft for 30 years of human exploration of the solar system.

"It's the first in a line of vehicles that can take us where we've never gone before," Walheim said. "It'll be a building block approach, we'll have to have a lander and a habitation module, but we can get there."

Although the design is reminiscent of the landmark Apollo capsule that took men to the moon, the interior of the spacecraft if significantly more advanced. Its guidance, navigation and life support equipment have seen significant improvements in size and capabilities.

"The systems on this spacecraft, it's bigger than Apollo and it has to stay in space longer than Apollo, so it has to be better than Apollo," said Bob Cabana, director of Kennedy and a former shuttle commander.

For now, the focus for NASA and Lockheed Martin, the spacecraft's builder, is on preparing this capsule for space in 2014. During the EFT-1 mission, a Delta IV-Heavy rocket from United Launch Alliance will lift the spacecraft into orbit. Its second stage will remain attached to the capsule and will be fired to raise the Orion's orbit to 3,600 miles, about 15 times higher than the International Space Station. The mission will last only a few hours, long enough to make two orbits before being sent plunging back into the atmosphere to test it at deep-space reentry speeds.

Assembly at Kennedy will take place in the high bay of the Operations and Checkout Building, or O&C. The O&C was refurbished extensively in 2006 and has been outfitted with large fixtures and tools to turn the aluminum shell of Orion into a functioning spacecraft complete with avionics, instrumentation and heat shield.

The space-bound Orion was welded at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, in the same factory that built the external tanks for space shuttle missions.

NASA's Ground Services Development and Operations Program, or GSDO, oversaw development of the mobile launcher that will provide a launch pad for the SLS and Orion missions. The program also refurbished Launch Pad 39B, designing a new pad structure emphasizing flexibility.

"A vehicle can come in any shape and any size and be able to launch from this pad," said Pepper Phillips, manager of the GSDO program.

The Orion program, based at Johnson Space Center in Houston, calls on multiple NASA centers to team up for the missions including EFT-1.

"Ultimately, we're going to fly as one big team," said Dave Beaman, Space Launch System spacecraft and payload integration manager based at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "The fact that we're two separate programs, and having the GSDO program here at Kennedy, it gets some early coordination going and gives a chance to iron out some wrinkles."

Although EFT-1 will be launched aboard a Delta IV-Heavy rocket, it will use a stage adapter design that also will connect the Orion to the SLS.

"You want to make a part that can be designed for the Orion flight, as well as the SLS flights so you only have to design it once," Beaman said. "We'll get flight data on the performance, which really helps."

The spacecraft arrived at Kennedy nearly 50 years to the day that the center was born. Both occasions give NASA a great chance to set future milestones that will be as celebrated as those already achieved, Garver said.

"It's a great day and great way to celebrate 50 years of success and talk about 50 years in the future," Garver said.

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/mpcv/orion_arrival.html

[sychbird]

NASA представило капсулу космического корабля для покорения дальнего космоса
http://newsru.com/world/03jul2012/orion.html

[Rifkat]

NASA представило капсулу космического корабля для покорения дальнего космоса
http://newsru.com/world/03jul2012/orion.html

Хм. 2021й год, значить... ПТК НП летит тогда в 2022м

[Salo]

http://vz.ru/news/2012/7/3/586549.html

NASA представило корпус для сверхдальнего космического корабля[/size]
        3 июля 2012, 01:52


Фото: nasa.gov

Национальное управление США по аэронавтике и исследованию космического пространства (NASA) представило в понедельник корпус корабля Orion, предназначенного для исследований дальнего космоса.

Алюминиевый корпус капсулы изготовил основной подрядчик NASA в этом проекте – американская авиакосмическая корпорация Lockheed-Martin. В течение ближайших полутора лет специалисты будут заниматься окончательной сборкой пилотируемого аппарата: на нем будут установлены двигатели, тепловая защита, авионика, системы электроснабжения и возвращения на Землю и другие механизмы.

Первое полетное испытание аппарата состоится в 2014 году. Капсулу выведет в космос тяжелая ракета-носитель Delta-4. Беспилотному Orion, который в будущем будет способен брать на борт четырех астронавтов, предстоит совершить два витка вокруг Земли по орбите высотой до 5,6 тыс. км, затем совершить спуск на скорости до 32 тыс. км в час и приводниться в Тихом океане. В ходе теста предполагается проверить системы тепловой защиты и работу парашютов.

Как отмечают в NASA, этот полет станет первым для американского космического ведомства за пределы околоземной орбиты после лунной миссии 1972 года. Второй тестовый полет Orion запланирован на 2017 год и будет осуществлен с помощью разрабатываемой тяжелой ракеты, получившей пока рабочее название «Система запуска в космос». Третий тест – уже с астронавтами на борту – назначен на 2021 год.

«Доставка капсулы Orion в Центр Кеннеди является важным шагом в осуществлении задачи, поставленной президентом (Бараком Обамой): послать человека к астероиду к 2025 году и к Марсу в 2030-х годах. Пользуясь услугами частных компаний по доставке грузов и экипажа на Международную космическую станцию, NASA концентрирует сейчас свои усилия на разработке систем нового поколения по исследованию дальнего космоса. Поставка первого аппарата Orion и недавний успешный полет коммерческого корабля Dragon свидетельствуют о том, что космическая стратегия США работает», – заявил заместитель директора NASA Лори Гарвер на официальной церемонии представления аппарата, приуроченной к отмечавшемуся в понедельник 50-летию Космического центра Кеннеди.

Согласно NASA, Orion должен стать основным многоцелевым пилотируемым кораблем для дальнейшего освоения космического пространства. Капсула имеет массу 23 тонны и внешне напоминает корабли Mercury и Apollo, которые эксплуатировались в 1960–1970-е годы, хотя и несколько крупнее их: в наиболее широкой части достигает в диаметре 5 метров, передает ИТАР-ТАСС.[/size]

[L. Gorbovsky]

Сварка трением, самая модная, блин:


Смпатично:



У нас когда освоят - кто-нибудь в курсе?

[Дмитрий Виницкий]

Вы чего, с гвоздя упали?

[Виктор Левашов]

Вы чего, с гвоздя упали?

В смысле?
Считаете: никогда?

[Дмитрий Виницкий]

50 лет назад освоили.