1 00:00:06,899 --> 00:00:09,120 What an exciting day at the Kennedy Space Center. 2 00:00:09,120 --> 00:00:12,879 You can see the Orion spaceship coming out of the O&C building where we’ve been assembling 3 00:00:12,879 --> 00:00:17,500 it for several years. 4 00:00:17,500 --> 00:00:21,660 As big a step as this is for us today, and rolling out and starting the journey of Artemis 5 00:00:21,660 --> 00:00:26,890 I to the Moon and beyond, we’re really excited for this test program to get this vehicle 6 00:00:26,890 --> 00:00:33,930 flown and to begin the next steps which are to send humans back to the Moon. 7 00:00:33,930 --> 00:00:39,200 The twin sister of Apollo, Artemis is the name given to the program that will return 8 00:00:39,200 --> 00:00:41,390 humanity to the Moon. 9 00:00:41,390 --> 00:00:47,920 And, named after one of the largest constellations in the night Sky, Orion is the spacecraft 10 00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:50,449 destined to get us there. 11 00:00:50,449 --> 00:00:55,650 Through Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color 12 00:00:55,650 --> 00:00:57,510 on the lunar surface. 13 00:00:57,510 --> 00:01:03,580 And, these missions will allow us to explore more of the Moon than ever before, paving 14 00:01:03,580 --> 00:01:07,020 the way for long-term presence in lunar orbit. 15 00:01:07,020 --> 00:01:11,030 We’re rolling the Orion spacecraft out, but it’s beginning its journey. 16 00:01:11,030 --> 00:01:15,680 We’re really kind of at the end of the building process and the beginning of getting ready 17 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:16,990 to go fly. 18 00:01:16,990 --> 00:01:22,210 But before Orion can travel to our nearest celestial body, it first must make a few pit 19 00:01:22,210 --> 00:01:26,820 stops along the way to fuel up and get ready for flight. 20 00:01:26,820 --> 00:01:30,860 As we leave here today, we’re gonna go to a facility that’ll fuel the spacecraft with 21 00:01:30,860 --> 00:01:35,240 the rocket fuels and propellants it needs, we’ll put a launch abort system on, we’ll 22 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:41,280 send it out to be stacked on the rocket and launched, and it’s really the last few yards 23 00:01:41,280 --> 00:01:43,080 of the game. 24 00:01:43,080 --> 00:01:47,870 Orion’s journey to the Moon began on the bayou. 25 00:01:47,870 --> 00:01:53,390 NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans is where, in 2015, technicians with 26 00:01:53,390 --> 00:01:58,510 Lockheed Martin began welding the pieces of the spacecraft’s underlying aluminum structure 27 00:01:58,510 --> 00:02:01,330 together. 28 00:02:01,330 --> 00:02:06,430 One year later, it arrived in Florida, taking up semi-permanent residence inside the Neil 29 00:02:06,430 --> 00:02:12,200 Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. 30 00:02:12,200 --> 00:02:16,849 Engineers and technicians will spend the next five years working almost around the clock, 31 00:02:16,849 --> 00:02:22,939 outfitting Orion with thousands of components, and pushing the capsule through several rounds 32 00:02:22,939 --> 00:02:28,459 of rigorous testing, as teams prepare it for its flight around the Moon. 33 00:02:28,459 --> 00:02:33,920 The first step though is the crew module’s arrival. 34 00:02:33,920 --> 00:02:40,540 When the crew module shows up here at the O&C building, it’s really just a welded 35 00:02:40,540 --> 00:02:42,469 shell of the structure. 36 00:02:42,469 --> 00:02:47,769 When it gets here, we put it into a fixture down to my left called the bird cage tool, 37 00:02:47,769 --> 00:02:54,909 and we use that fixture to position and attach all of the mechanically attached primary and 38 00:02:54,909 --> 00:02:58,870 secondary structure for the crew module. 39 00:02:58,870 --> 00:03:03,560 Part of that includes the heat shield, which protects the crew module as it blazes through 40 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:13,719 Earth’s atmosphere at an astonishing speed as it returns home. 41 00:03:13,719 --> 00:03:18,099 Technicians with Lockheed bond those thermal protection system products onto the heat shield 42 00:03:18,099 --> 00:03:23,680 right here in the O&C, and they do the same for the crew module’s forward bay cover. 43 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:30,919 We bond that on here, and basically this covers the forward bay of the crew module such that 44 00:03:30,919 --> 00:03:35,860 once we come back into the atmosphere, this gets jettisoned, and all of the landing system 45 00:03:35,860 --> 00:03:41,129 – i.e. parachutes – get deployed and slows the crew module down so that when it touches 46 00:03:41,129 --> 00:03:45,069 down in the ocean, it’s only going a few miles an hour. 47 00:03:45,069 --> 00:03:51,269 With the primary and secondary structures all attached, the crew module is tested to 48 00:03:51,269 --> 00:03:53,769 see how everything holds up. 49 00:03:53,769 --> 00:03:58,439 Orion is pressurized, stressing the welds to ensure they’ll hold up under the proper 50 00:03:58,439 --> 00:03:59,620 loading. 51 00:03:59,620 --> 00:04:05,189 Afterwards, nondestructive evaluation of those welds is conducted to check for any voids 52 00:04:05,189 --> 00:04:09,069 or cracks. 53 00:04:09,069 --> 00:04:13,510 Once the structure is deemed strong enough, the crew module is moved just a few spaces 54 00:04:13,510 --> 00:04:22,720 down into the O&C’s clean room for its next round of integrations. 55 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:28,169 We bring that structure into our clean room, which is what you see behind me, because we 56 00:04:28,169 --> 00:04:33,350 need to start integrating the propulsion system, and elements of the environmental control 57 00:04:33,350 --> 00:04:38,520 and life support subsystems, and those systems require a cleaner environment than the one 58 00:04:38,520 --> 00:04:40,789 we’re standing in out here. 59 00:04:40,789 --> 00:04:45,820 When all of that is done, the crew module is on the move again, to the crew module integration 60 00:04:45,820 --> 00:04:46,840 station. 61 00:04:46,840 --> 00:04:53,650 There, all of the electrical systems, including wire harnesses and avionics boxes that control 62 00:04:53,650 --> 00:04:59,229 the crew module’s guidance navigation, communications, and its power subsystems, are integrated. 63 00:04:59,229 --> 00:05:04,430 Next, it’s time to bring the spacecraft to life. 64 00:05:04,430 --> 00:05:09,240 We power it up, and then we go into a whole series of functional tests to make sure all 65 00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:13,300 of the subsystems we’ve integrated up to that point are functioning properly. 66 00:05:13,300 --> 00:05:17,560 But, the crew module isn’t the only thing that makes up the Orion spacecraft. 67 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:24,560 All the people, the work, the components that have gone into this vehicle, it’s just an 68 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:26,449 amazing feat. 69 00:05:26,449 --> 00:05:31,289 Teams also worked closely with the European Space Agency to build the service module – the 70 00:05:31,289 --> 00:05:36,840 element that will power Orion on its journey around the Moon. 71 00:05:36,840 --> 00:05:42,280 Once that arrives from Bremen, Germany, Lockheed moves forward with integrating the two. 72 00:05:42,280 --> 00:05:45,970 The service module has a very similar lifecycle to the crew module. 73 00:05:45,970 --> 00:05:50,820 We build it up structurally, we integrate the propulsion system and the other fluid 74 00:05:50,820 --> 00:05:56,360 systems, and then we integrate it electrically, and power it up, and do functional tests on 75 00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:57,360 it. 76 00:05:57,360 --> 00:06:01,139 And when we have a full service module, and a full crew module, then we stack the two 77 00:06:01,139 --> 00:06:07,039 together and we have what’s called the crew service module for Artemis I. 78 00:06:07,039 --> 00:06:12,500 Under the Artemis program, NASA plans to not only return to the Moon, but to use that as 79 00:06:12,500 --> 00:06:19,949 a stepping stone to go farther than any human has ever gone before: Mars. 80 00:06:19,949 --> 00:06:25,699 To get there, it’s truly a cross-country and international effort among thousands of 81 00:06:25,699 --> 00:06:26,699 individuals. 82 00:06:26,699 --> 00:06:32,069 When you consider all the people at the Johnson Space Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, 83 00:06:32,069 --> 00:06:39,820 all across the agency, SLS, Orion, the European Service Module, Boeing and their team, Lockheed 84 00:06:39,820 --> 00:06:44,580 Martin and their team, and to see all of that come together on that launch when we send 85 00:06:44,580 --> 00:06:48,340 it on its way to the Moon, it’s gonna be absolutely amazing, and we’re gonna have 86 00:06:48,340 --> 00:06:52,080 a lot of really proud, happy people. 87 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:57,270 Building a spacecraft destined for deep-space exploration from the ground up is no easy 88 00:06:57,270 --> 00:07:04,121 task, and the fact that these teams have been able to come together and do just that in 89 00:07:04,121 --> 00:07:08,629 the midst of a global pandemic is nothing short of amazing. 90 00:07:08,629 --> 00:07:11,590 It really is a testament to the workforce. 91 00:07:11,590 --> 00:07:14,800 If think about what we’ve been through over the years that they’ve been putting this 92 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:18,550 together, and particularly, think about the environment that this team was dealing with. 93 00:07:18,550 --> 00:07:22,020 We’re dealing with covid, and we’re asking these folks to come into work every day and 94 00:07:22,020 --> 00:07:24,300 finish this spacecraft so we can keep this mission going. 95 00:07:24,300 --> 00:07:26,449 And we’re ready, I mean we’re excited. 96 00:07:26,449 --> 00:07:30,520 So as they turn this over to us, we’re ready to get going. 97 00:07:30,520 --> 00:07:34,810 And really, this is only the start of Orion’s path to the pad. 98 00:07:34,810 --> 00:07:40,479 It’s a little hard to put into words, and when you think about the fact that we are 99 00:07:40,479 --> 00:07:48,370 in the first flow of what will be our nation’s deep space exploration program, it hits you 100 00:07:48,370 --> 00:07:49,370 in the heart. 101 00:07:49,370 --> 00:07:58,600 And it really speaks to why we all are doing what we’re doing. 102 00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:05,550 I never thought as a little kid growing up I’d be part of something like this today. 103 00:08:05,550 --> 00:08:10,889 Now as a dad of 2 young girls, to be able to tell them what I do and to be able to have 104 00:08:10,889 --> 00:08:15,100 them someday watch the first woman stand on the Moon is pretty amazing to me personally. 105 00:08:15,100 --> 00:08:20,669 As the Orion spacecraft departs the O&C, its next stop is the Multi-Payload Processing 106 00:08:20,669 --> 00:08:27,810 Facility, or MPPF, where teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems and prime contractor 107 00:08:27,810 --> 00:08:33,240 Jacobs will perform the next set of milestones: fueling and servicing the spacecraft. 108 00:08:33,240 --> 00:08:40,220 We have a few months of hard but rewarding work ahead of us to get to launch. 109 00:08:40,220 --> 00:08:41,700 But this is it. 110 00:08:41,700 --> 00:08:43,330 This is our year. 111 00:08:43,330 --> 00:08:46,680 This is our time, and what folks have worked so hard for. 112 00:08:46,680 --> 00:08:52,010 Now, we’re going to continue with processing, get that thing check out and fueled, get the 113 00:08:52,010 --> 00:08:53,790 launch abort motor stuck on top of it. 114 00:08:53,790 --> 00:08:58,870 With fueling of Orion’s crew and service modules complete, the spacecraft moves from 115 00:08:58,870 --> 00:09:02,880 the MPPF into the Launch Abort System Facility. 116 00:09:02,880 --> 00:09:07,450 We just finished fueling the spaceship and we moved it to the LASF facility - the Launch 117 00:09:07,450 --> 00:09:12,920 Abort System Facility to put the launch abort system on the top of Orion. 118 00:09:12,920 --> 00:09:19,390 And in July 2019, teams completed a critical test – the Ascent Abort-2 flight test – to 119 00:09:19,390 --> 00:09:29,980 validate the launch abort system works as expected. 120 00:09:29,980 --> 00:09:35,290 After reaching an altitude of about six miles, where the test spacecraft experienced high-stress 121 00:09:35,290 --> 00:09:39,480 conditions expected during launch, the abort sequence triggered. 122 00:09:39,480 --> 00:09:45,140 Within milliseconds, the abort motor fired to pull the crew module away to safety. 123 00:09:45,140 --> 00:09:49,820 Its attitude control motor flipped the capsule into the proper orientation, and the jettison 124 00:09:49,820 --> 00:09:55,489 motor fired to release the crew module for a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. 125 00:09:55,489 --> 00:10:02,070 I feel just honored and humbled every day to be able to work on this stuff. 126 00:10:02,070 --> 00:10:05,210 This rocket is absolutely amazing. 127 00:10:05,210 --> 00:10:11,520 Now that the spacecraft’s launch abort system is securely in place, Orion is ready for the 128 00:10:11,520 --> 00:10:17,120 next stop on its path to the pad: the Vehicle Assembly Building.