KSC-2014-2865

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Inside the Operations and Checkout Building high bay at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA and Lockheed Martin technicians and engineers conduct a center of gravity, or CG, test on the Orion crew module. The CG tool will measure the exact location of the vehicle's center of gravity. This test is important as it affects the handling and control characteristics of the vehicle. The Orion crew module will be stacked on the service module in the Final Assembly and System Testing, or FAST, cell and then both modules will be put through their final system tests for Exploration Flight Test-1, or EFT-1, before rolling out of the facility for integration with the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket. Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to destinations not yet explored by humans, including an asteroid and Mars. It will have emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. The first unpiloted test flight of Orion, EFT-1, is scheduled to launch later this year atop a Delta IV rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to an altitude of 3,600 miles above the Earth's surface. The two-orbit, four-hour flight test will help engineers evaluate the systems critical to crew safety including the heat shield, parachute system and launch abort system. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/orion. Photo credit: NASA/Glenn Benson