EM-1 Orion set for shipment

NEW ORLEANS – The recently completed Exploration Mission One (EM-1) Orion will be shipped to Florida's Kennedy Space Center Monday aboard NASA's Super Guppy. The pressure vessel, built by Lockheed Martin at Michoud Assembly Facility, is the structure that holds the spacecraft's systems and subsystems. The pressure vessel's aluminum pieces were joined using friction-stir welding that bonds the edges of the aluminum pieces together. This structure will eventually be fitted atop NASA's Space Launch System and conduct its first mission in 2018 – an unscrewed orbit around the moon. (Source: Spaceflight Insider, 01/30/16)