The NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans announces that engineers have welded together the first two segments of the Orion crew module that will fly atop NASA’s Space Launch System rocket on a mission beyond the far side of the moon. The primary structure of Orion’s crew module is made of seven large aluminum segments that must be welded together in a specific order. For example, the first weld connects the tunnel to the forward bulkhead, which is at the top of the spacecraft. Orion’s tunnel, with a docking hatch, will allow crews to move between the crew module and other spacecraft.
Through collaborations across design and manufacturing, teams have been able to reduce the number of welds for the crew module by more than half since the first test version of Orion’s primary structure was constructed and flown on the Exploration Flight Test-1 last December. The Exploration Mission-1 structure will include just seven main welds, plus several smaller welds for start and stop holes left by welding tools. Fewer welds will result in a lighter spacecraft.
Engineers have undertaken a meticulous process to prepare for welding. They have cleaned the segments, coated them with a protective chemical, and primed them. They then outfitted each element with strain gauges and wiring to monitor the metal during the fabrication process.
Prior to beginning work, technicians practiced their process, refined their techniques, and ensured proper tooling configurations by welding together a pathfinder, a full-scale version of the current spacecraft design. NASA’s prime contractor for the spacecraft, Lockheed Martin, is doing the production of the crew module at Michoud.
