NASA is working with Orion spacecraft prime contractor Lockheed Martin to resolve a handful of issues that came up late last year during ground testin

NASA, Lockheed Martin working to resolve Artemis II Orion issues, deliver spacecraft around summer’s end

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2024-04-03 18:00:15

NASA is working with Orion spacecraft prime contractor Lockheed Martin to resolve a handful of issues that came up late last year during ground testing, forcing the space agency to delay the launch readiness target date for its Artemis II circumlunar mission to September 2025. The Lockheed Martin assembly, test, and launch operations (ATLO) team at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is reinstalling some electronics and implementing workarounds for others affected by an electrical circuit flaw found in digital motor controllers on the spacecraft.

While a resolution to that issue appears to be getting closer, the Orion program and contractor teams are also working through the corrective actions process for a problem with how the Orion batteries handle the shock of an extreme abort case. Resolution of both issues will be necessary to allow Lockheed Martin’s production team to move towards finishing assembly and test of the spacecraft before turning it over to Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) for Artemis II launch processing. Currently, the teams are working to meet the EGS handover milestone around the end of summer this year.

Since completing the Artemis I mission to the Moon in December 2022, NASA has been aiming for readiness to launch Artemis II on a lunar flyby mission at the end of 2024. However, old and new issues have delayed that target date to September 2025. Artemis II will be the first crewed mission for the Exploration Ground Systems (EGS), Orion, and Space Launch System (SLS) programs, with the four-person crew of astronauts preparing for a 10-day circumlunar flight.