Orion test vehicle arrives

Orion Ground Test Vehicle. NASA photo

The Orion Ground Test Vehicle is now at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Operations and Checkout Facility after traveling 1,800 miles from Lockheed Martin's Waterton Facility near Denver, Colo., where it completed a series of acoustic, modal and vibration tests. The ground test vehicle will now be used for pathfinding operations at the O&C in preparation for the Orion spaceflight test vehicle's arrival this summer. The spaceflight vehicle is being fabricated at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La., and is slated for NASA's Exploration Flight Test (EFT-1) in 2014. (Source: NASA, 04/25/12)