Thea Loise Woodward
Northrop Grumman has conducted a hot-fire test of an attitude control motor on the Orion spacecraft’s crew safety system. NASA said Friday that Northrop’s ACM technology generated over 7,000 pounds of thrust from multiple valves during the 30-second test, which took place Thursday at a company facility in Elkton, Md.
ACM is designed to help power the launch abort system to transport the Lockheed Martin-built crew capsule and its passengers to safety if an emergency occurs during liftoff. The agency added that LAS will employ an attitude control motor to power the necessary steering functions and a jettison motor to separate itself from the crew before astronauts use their parachutes for a safe ocean landing.
According to NASA, the recent ACM demonstration was the second to last trial it must undergo to qualify for the Artemis 2 manned mission to the moon in 2022.
