Lockheed Martin Rolls Out First NASA Orion Spacecraft for Testing, Launch | Albuquerque Express

Lockheed Martin Rolls Out First NASA Orion Spacecraft for Testing, Launch

Yahoo Wednesday 23rd March, 2011

first copy of which was recently rolled out by Lockheed Martin for testing prior to a space launch in 2013. The Orion, designed to take human explorers beyond low Earth orbit, has a superficial resemblance to the old Apollo spacecraft. It has a command module (for crew or cargo) and a service module and is designed to be launched on an expendable rocket. There is where the resemblance ends. The avionics, communications hardware, and navigation systems are state of the art, 21st century technology. The Orion uses a heart shield with composite thermal protection materials. Orion will be powered by two solar arrays that would deploy after launch. Orion will take four rather than three astronauts into space. In short, Orion resembles an old Apollo pretty much as a modern airliner resembles ...

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