Orion panel

Lockheed Martin has completed an evaluation of the new design for Nasa’s Orion spacecraft fairing separation system at its facility in Sunnyvale, California, US.

The revamped Orion features three fairings, or panels, which are designed to protect the service module radiators and solar arrays from heat, wind and acoustics during ascent into space.

Engineers at Lockheed have added new push-off springs that act on the fairing for a longer period of time, to increase safety and reliability, and use four crew module structural attachments instead of six.

During tests, one of the fairings was separated to evaluate the push-off springs, structural attachments and star tracker covers, as well as assess different pyrotechnic variances and higher load cases to prepare for Exploration Mission-1.

Lockheed Martin Orion vice-president and programme manager Mike Hawes said: "The fairing separation is one of our very first critical events.

"If it doesn’t work as planned, it’s probable the mission cannot continue, and tests like this help ensure it will work right the first time and every time."

"If it doesn’t work as planned, it’s probable the mission cannot continue, and tests like this help ensure it will work right the first time and every time."

The team also collected shock data, which will be submitted to the European Space Agency (ESA) to facilitate design of the service module.

Changes to Orion have been made based on data collected during its first test flight in December last year.

Fairings will be part of the service module acoustics and vibe testing is planned to be conducted at Nasa’s Plum Brook facility in Ohio later this year.

Designed and built for Nasa, the Orion exploration capsule is designed to transport astronauts in to deep-space destinations and return safely back to Earth.

Image: A protective panel for Orion’s service module during testing at Lockheed’s California facility. Photo: courtesy of Lockheed Martin Corporation.