As Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Jefferson County works on NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle, the successor to the space shuttle, it is preparing for a critical flight test next September.
The flight test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico next fall is to prove out capabilities of Orion’s launch-abort system. It will perform a launchpad abort — removing the crew from the booster in case of a problem or impending problem.
Officials held a groundbreaking for NASA’s Project Orion Abort Flight Test facility at White Sands Missile Range this month.
“It’s a very critical test,” said Bill Johns, chief engineer of Project Orion for Lockheed Martin.
Aside from preparing for the test, most engineers on the program are working on the details on the spacecraft. More than 500 employees work on Orion in the Denver area. New labs for the launch systems are opening, including an exploration development lab to test hardware at Lockheed Martin’s Waterton facility.
“There’s a tremendous momentum that’s happening now,” Johns said. “There’s going to be a lot of excitement growing as people start seeing these test programs, because they’re going to start saying, ‘Wow, this is cool. Wow, this is real.’ ”
