MAF-built EM-2 vessel in Florida

Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans completed construction on the spacecraft capsule structure that will return astronauts to the Moon. It was shipped to Florida and arrived last week at Kennedy Space Center. It is now undergoing final assembly. The capsule structure, or pressure vessel, for NASA's Orion Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2) spacecraft was welded together over the last seven months by Lockheed Martin technicians and engineers at the NASA New Orleans facility. The EM-2 mission in mid-2022 will be its first flight with astronauts on board, taking them farther into the solar system than ever before. The first pressure vessel for EM-1, which will be used in an unmanned flight, was also built at Michoud and sent to Kennedy for final assembly. (Sources: multiple, including Orlando Sentinel, Virginia Pilot, (08/28/18) Previous