Correction – Larry Price’s titled changed to Orion deputy program manager
Media are invited to attend a briefing at NASA’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio, on Tuesday, Aug. 21, at 10 a.m. EDT regarding an acoustic evaluation of the Orion crew module test article. This acoustic assessment is in preparation for an April 2019 test flight, known as Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2), where the spacecraft’s launch abort system will undergo a full-stress test to demonstrate its ability to quickly get astronauts safely away from the launch vehicle if there is a problem during their climb to space.
Briefing participants are:
- Joel Kearns, NASA Glenn Research Center’s deputy director of Space Flight Systems
- Larry Price, Lockheed Martin’s Orion deputy program manager
- Nicole Smith, NASA Glenn’s test project manager
- Griff Corpening, NASA Johnson Space Center’s Flight Test Management Office
Media interested in attending must contact Jimi Russell at james.j.russell@nasa.gov no later than noon EDT Monday, Aug. 20, and plan to arrive at Plum Brook Station no later than 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 21 for badging and entrance.
NASA is leading the next steps of human exploration into deep space with its Orion spacecraft, launched atop the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Together Orion and SLS will be the critical backbone capabilities that will carry humans to the Moon and extend human exploration farther into space than ever before. AA-2 will test the launch abort system during ascent, where it will encounter the greatest structural stress. A previous test, called Pad Abort-1, tested an abort scenario from the launch pad. AA-2 will be the final test of the fully active launch abort system before crewed missions.
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Jimi Russell
Glenn Research Center, Cleveland
216-433-2894
james.j.russell@nasa.gov