Progress Toward 2014 Exploration Flight Test

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Adapter 'Flips' for Progress Toward 2014 Exploration Flight Test

Engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., recently flipped an adapter -- no easy feat when you're talking about 1,000 pounds of aluminum -- furthering progress toward Exploration Flight Test (EFT)-1 in 2014 and providing early experience for Space Launch System (SLS) hardware ahead of the rocket's first flight in 2017. The flip is an important step in finishing the machining work on the adapter, which will attach NASA's Orion spacecraft to a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV rocket that will send Orion to space during EFT-1.

The same adapter technology later will connect Orion to SLS -- a new heavy-lift rocket managed and in development at Marshall that will be capable of sending Orion into deep space.

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Edited February 28, 2014 by Waspie_Dwarf

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Flipping Adapters for Space Launch System

The structural test article adapter is flipped at Marshall testing facility Building 4705. The turnover is an important step in finishing the machining work on the adapter, which will undergo tests to certify subsequent flight units used to attach the Orion spacecraft to a Delta IV rocket for its 2014 Exploration Flight Test-1.

Credit: NASA/MSFC

Source: NASA - Multimedia