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i'm mike curie at kennedy space center

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and i'm here today with scott wilson

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manager of orion production operations

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for nasa scott thank you for being here

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oh thank you

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we are in what is called the onc

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building can you tell us what that is

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yeah the onc building is a building here

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at kennedy space center and it's really

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where all the parts of the orion

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spacecraft come together from around the

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country and around the world and it's

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where we put those parts together really

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to take the vehicle from a piece of

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metal all the way up to the full

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spacecraft that you see behind us today

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it's a really interesting building it's

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got a really rich history it goes back

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to the days of apollo the apollo

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spacecraft were assembled here the lunar

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landers the lunar rovers were integrated

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and tested here as well as parts of the

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space station and the shuttle payloads

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for many years so in a lot of ways we've

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come full circle to uh going back and

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starting exploration from this building

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well a lot of exciting things have been

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happening and lately you stacked the

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crew module on top of the service module

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can you tell us what the crew module and

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service module are yeah absolutely the

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crew module is a cone-shaped capsule

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structure in the vehicle behind us and

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it's really where the crew lives and

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works while they're in space it provides

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all the life support systems for the

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crew

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provides all the command and control

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capability that they need to be able to

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fly the mission and just as importantly

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when the mission is done in space it's

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the part of the vehicle that helps to

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return them to earth and protects them

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from the heat of re-entry as we go back

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through the atmosphere so it contains

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the heat shield and the back shells

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which are essentially tiles that protect

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them from the heat as well as the

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parachute systems that let us softly

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return to earth so it's a very important

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part of the service module as the name

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implies provides a lot of the services

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that you need while you're in space so

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it's where we have the main propulsion

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systems the main engines

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it has the solar arrays that provide the

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electricity the large tanks for fuel and

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oxidizers as well as the oxygen and

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systems that we need to support the

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mission it's actually jettisoned in

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flight just prior to re-entry and so it

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doesn't participate in that part of the

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mission

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so in terms of the orion milestones and

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schedule what does it mean to now have

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stacked the two together it's a great

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question this is a really big milestone

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for us it's been probably over two and a

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half years ago we got our first pieces

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of metal into our factory in new orleans

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and from there we began welding together

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what we call the pressure vessel which

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is the internal part of the vehicle

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which really keeps the atmosphere in

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where the crew lives and works

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that piece of metal got here about two

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years ago now into this building and

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ever since then we've been putting on

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all the other systems that make that

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piece of metal into a full-blown

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spaceship and it's all the thrusters the

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environmental control systems the

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electrical systems and avionics and

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power systems and

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the parachutes and really everything

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that makes it a spacecraft so it's a

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it's been a

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long time coming we're really excited

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that we're finally getting to put the

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two pieces together the crew module and

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service module into this configuration

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and it really marks the first time those

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two uh modules are together in the way

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they would be in space so it lets us get

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into a series of tests now where we test

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the spacecraft as though we're flying

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so uh what is next now for orion and

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what else needs to be done before launch

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it's a great question too so we've we've

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stacked the vehicles together i

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mentioned we're going to go through

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about two months of testing where we'll

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test the vehicle together we have a

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philosophy that says test like you fly

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so we'll actually put the vehicle

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through simulated flight here and uh

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once it's done here we'll go to another

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building where we'll we'll um fuel the

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spacecraft put in all the hazardous

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fuels and the cooling commodities uh

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we'll go to a third building where we'll

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put the launch abort system on the top

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and the launch abort system is a solid

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rocket motor or series of motors that's

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built in a different building

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gets put on the top of this rocket and

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it actually pulls the capsule away in

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the event of an emergency so we'll stack

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that on there and go out to the launch

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pad and be ready for launch in december

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okay so launches in december and what

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exactly will be happening on the flight

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the this is our first uh in space

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mission it's actually the second flight

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of orion we did a flight in white sands

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new mexico a few years ago to test the

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launch abort system this is our first in

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space flight and we'll go up and we'll

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launch on the delta iv heavy as i

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mentioned uh we'll do two orbits of the

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earth one of those is what we call

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highly elliptical and so it goes out

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about 3 600 miles from earth which is

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really the farthest that a human capable

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spacecraft has gone uh since the apollo

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days and we do that because we want to

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be able to come back at the speeds you

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would see if you came back from a deep

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space mission so we come back in about

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over 20 000 miles an hour when we hit

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the atmosphere just before we hit it

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we'll separate the crew module we'll go

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in for re-entry

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we'll the heat shield and the thermal

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protection will protect the capsule down

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until it gets close to the earth and the

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parachutes will come out and we'll

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settle down for a splashdown pacific

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ocean

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about 600 miles southwest of san diego

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and the navy is working with us to do

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our recovery there and we'll return the

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vehicle here so it's a pretty exciting

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time for us very exciting times well

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scott thank you for making time for us

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and we look forward to talking to you

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soon

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scott wilson manager of orion production