A welding technician inspects a circumferential weld of the "pathfinder" version of the adapter design that will be used on test flights of the Orion spacecraft and NASA's Space Launch System.
Andre Paseur, a welding technician at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., inspects a circumferential weld of the “pathfinder” version of the adapter design that will be used on test flights of the Orion spacecraft and NASA’s Space Launch System. The circumferential weld on the pathfinder is difficult because the welding machine must control a complex weld path. The data and experience gathered from this weld are invaluable to Marshall engineers as they prepare to perform the same task on flight hardware in 2013.
Image credit: NASA/MSFC/Emmett GivenView videoView additional photoView additional photo