KSC-2012-3956

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – This aerial view shows a 50,000-square-foot hangar located on the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., providing shelter and storage for NASA and non-NASA aircraft and maintenance operations. Adjacent to the hangar is an operations building housing personnel who support operations at the 15,000-foot long concrete runway. At the north end of the runway, a rock and crater-filled planetary scape has been built so engineers can test the Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology, or ALHAT system on the Project Morpheus lander. Testing will demonstrate ALHAT’s ability to provide required navigation data negotiating the Morpheus lander away from risks during descent. Checkout of the prototype lander has been ongoing at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in preparation for its first free flight. The SLF site will provide the lander with the kind of field necessary for realistic testing. Project Morpheus is one of 20 small projects comprising the Advanced Exploration Systems, or AES, program in NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. AES projects pioneer new approaches for rapidly developing prototype systems, demonstrating key capabilities and validating operational concepts for future human missions beyond Earth orbit. For more information on Project Morpheus, visit http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/exploration/morpheus/index.html Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett