A Crucial Demonstration for Artemis 2 Has Been Completed...

NASA / Kim Shiflett

NASA’s Landing and Recovery Team Makes Splash with New Orion Test Article (News Release - February 28)

NASA’s Landing and Recovery team at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, along with the Department of Defense (DoD), completed a rigorous round of testing on their new mock-up of the Orion spacecraft. They will use this test article to train NASA, Navy and other DoD personnel to retrieve astronauts from the Pacific Ocean after splashing down on Artemis Moon missions.

The Crew Module Test Article (CMTA) is the same size as Orion and has seats inside so the team can simulate astronauts being aboard.

Using lessons from the successful launch and recovery of the uncrewed Artemis I mission, the recovery team is preparing to modify recovery operations to account for astronauts on future missions. Using a test article to simulate opening the hatch and helping astronauts get out of the capsule will give NASA and the Navy a training experience close to what they will see on splashdown day.

Teams put the test article through its paces in February at Kennedy’s turn basin, keeping it in the water for nearly two and half weeks to ensure it floated at a stable buoyancy in different configurations. The recovery team successfully completed all their test objectives, demonstrating the capsule is ready for upcoming recovery tests in the Pacific Ocean.

In addition, the teams practiced getting in and out of the capsule and onto an inflatable “front porch,” which is an attachment that wraps around below the hatch of the capsule, enabling astronauts and divers to access Orion more easily. After the Artemis II crew splashes down, the recovery team will assist astronauts out of the capsule and onto the “porch” after which they’ll be flown back to the recovery ship via helicopter.

This method minimizes the amount of time astronauts will spend in the capsule after splashdown.

Once minor modifications are made, the CMTA will be shipped to Naval Base San Diego where it will be ready to support the next series of Artemis recovery tests at sea in preparation for the Artemis II mission, the first crewed mission of Orion and the Space Launch System rocket around the Moon. During these upcoming tests, the NASA recovery team and DoD partners will spend several days on a Navy ship in the Pacific using the test article to practice recovering the astronauts and capsule for future Artemis missions.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Kim Shiflett