KSC-2013-1562

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Inside the Operations and Checkout Building high bay at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a technician practices a procedure to repair cracks on the agency’s Orion Exploration Flight Test 1 crew module, during a dry run. During proof pressure testing on the vehicle, the spacecraft sustained three cracks in the aft bulkhead. A team composed of Lockheed Martin and NASA engineers designed a set of brackets that will be used to repair the area, as well as tooling to fix the cracked structure. Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry humans further into space than ever before. It will provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. Orion’s first unpiloted test flight is scheduled to launch in 2014 atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV heavy rocket. A second uncrewed flight test is scheduled for 2017 on the Space Launch System rocket. For more information, visit http:__www.nasa.gov_orion. Photo credit: NASA_Dimitri Gerondidakis