Lockheed Martin has completed a series of tests on the Orion spacecraft’s avionics system, which is built to activate and send commands to at least 20 systems on the crew module during flight and re-entry.
The company Orion’s thermal control, guidance and navigation, environmental control life support and other systems and analyzed the command signal, system responses and data production functions, the company said Monday.
“Each and every one of these systems is critical to mission success and they must perform flawlessly to ensure the safety of future crews,” said Cleon Lacefield, Orion program manager at Lockheed.
Tests on the Exploration Flight Test-1 occurred in the company’s operations and checkout facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida following an initial activation of the Vehicle Main Computer last year and installation of crew module components.
“Now that we’ve finished functional testing, the team will conduct performance testing and turn on all the systems at once, simulating the spacecraft’s operations during EFT-1,” said Lacefield.