What: An adapter that will connect NASA’s Orion spacecraft to a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV for Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) in 2014 will undergo a fit check with the rocket test article at 10 a.m. June 26 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
EFT-1 will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft to an altitude of 3,600 miles, farther than any spacecraft built for humans has gone in more than 40 years. It will provide engineers developing the capsule to carry humans to an asteroid and Mars with important data, including the adapter’s performance, before it is flown on the Space Launch System (SLS), NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket. Members of the news media are invited to attend.
ULA’s Factory in Decatur, Ala., is building the Delta IV and transported a section of test hardware to Marshall to ensure the pieces fit properly together – furthering progress toward EFT-1.
Media are invited to both see the fit check at Marshall and tour the United Launch Alliance facility in Decatur.
Who: Mark Geyer, manager of NASA’s Orion Program, will attend the fit check and ULA tour. Geyer will be available for interviews at both events.
When/Where:
10 a.m. CDT, Wednesday, June 26
Building 4705, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center
1 p.m. CDT, Wednesday, June 26
United Launch Alliance, 1001 Red Hat Road, Decatur, Ala.
To attend: News media interested in attending the fit check should contact Shannon Ridinger in Marshall’s Public & Employee Communications Office at 256-544-0034 no later than 4 p.m. CDT Tuesday, June 25. Media should report to the Redstone Arsenal Joint Visitor Control Center at Gate 9, Interstate 565 interchange at Rideout Road/Research Park Boulevard no later than 9 a.m. Vehicles are subject to a security search at the gate. Two forms of photo identifications and proof of car insurance are necessary to be allowed on site.
Media interested in attending the ULA tour should contact Jessica Rye at 321-693-6250 no later than 4 p.m. CDT Tuesday, June 25, and arrive at the ULA facility by 1 p.m. on June 26.
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Shannon Ridinger
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
shannon.j.ridinger@nasa.gov
Jessica Rye
United Launch Alliance, Decatur, Ala.
321-693-6250
jessica.f.rye@ulalaunch.com