NASA / Cory S Huston NASA Readies Orion Spacecraft to Receive Wings (News Release) Technicians have moved NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft out of its assembly stand in preparation for the upcoming installation of its four solar array wings and spacecraft adapter jettison fairings that encapsulate its service module. The move positions NASA another step closer to the first crewed flight test under Artemis. Operators used a 30-ton crane on February 22 to hoist the spacecraft out of the Final Assembly and System Testing (FAST) cell inside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Orion uses four solar arrays, manufactured and installed by ESA (European Space Agency) and its contractor Airbus, to deliver power to the service module that provides propulsion, thermal control and electrical power to the spacecraft, as well as air and water for the crew. Each solar array is nearly 23 feet long and can turn on two axes to remain aligned with the Sun for maximum power. A total of 15,000 gallium arsenide cells across the four arrays are used to convert sunlight into electricity. After the arrays are installed in the coming week, technicians will install three 14-foot-tall fairing panels onto Orion’s service module. The panels act as a protective shell for the solar array wings, shielding them from the heat, wind and acoustics of launch and ascent, and also help redistribute the load between Orion and the massive thrust of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket during liftoff and ascent. Once the spacecraft is above the atmosphere, the three fairing panels will separate from the service module reducing the mass of the spacecraft, and the four solar arrays will unfold, powering Orion to support the four crew members aboard on their journey around the Moon. Following the array and fairing installations, teams with NASA and Lockheed Martin will place Orion back in the FAST cell for final assembly operations on the spacecraft. Once work in the Operations and Checkout building is complete, the spacecraft will move to other NASA Kennedy facilities to be fueled, integrated with its launch abort system, and finally stacked atop the SLS in the Vehicle Assembly Building by NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems team. Source: NASA.Gov

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