Orion Crew Module Cone Panel

A crew module cone panel with openings for windows – which will provide that spectacular view – is ready for shipment to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans, Louisiana, for welding as part of Orion’s pressure vessel. The panel was designed by Orion’s prime contractor, Lockheed Martin of Denver, Colorado, and manufactured by AMRO Fabricating Corp., of South El Monte, California. It is the first element of the Artemis III crew module to be machined. To acknowledge the milestone, leaders from NASA, Lockheed, and AMRO recently showcased Orion’s progress through a video looking at the manufacturing process and hardware at AMRO. Participants included NASA’s Howard Hu, Lockheed Martin Vice President for Human Space Exploration and Orion Program Manager Mike Hawes, and AMRO CEO Mike Riley. Human exploration of the Moon under the Artemis program offers a unique opportunity to test, refine, and perfect many of the technologies and complex operations that will be needed to land humans on Mars, perform their work on the surface and safely return them to Earth.