Thursday, December 04, 2014

Celebrating Orion's Big Moment...

The Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying the Orion EFT-1 spacecraft stands poised for launch (which was scrubbed) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida...on December 4, 2014.
NASA

Just thought I'd share these photos that were taken during yesterday's NASA Social event at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Pasadena, California. Around 40 lucky social media users including myself had the privilege of watching presentations pertaining to today's (scrubbed) launch attempt for the Orion spacecraft...which is set to make its first flight into space and set America back on the path of sending astronauts beyond Earth's atmosphere from U.S. soil. Along with learning about Orion's mission, dubbed Exploration Flight Test 1, we also got to take a tour of JPL facilities (I never get tired of these)—such as the Space Flight Operations Facility, the Spacecraft Assembly Facility (where a second version of NASA's "flying saucer," also known as the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator, is being assembled) and the In-Situ Instrument Laboratory (where an engineering model for the now-in-construction InSight Mars lander resides). I should've went back to JPL this morning to watch on TV Orion's splashdown in the Pacific Ocean after a flawless flight from Florida, but it's all good. All that matters is that the capsule destined to take us to Mars one day sees the vacuum of space by the end of this weekend. Carry on.

LINK: Photos I took at the 2014 Orion NASA Social

A small model of the Orion EFT-1 spacecraft on display inside the Von Kármán Auditorium at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California...on December 3, 2014.

A group photo that we took during the NASA Social event at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California...on December 3, 2014.

An engineering model of NASA's InSight Mars lander on display inside the In-Situ Instrument Laboratory at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California...on December 3, 2014.

Components of NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator being worked on inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California...on December 3, 2014.

Components of NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator being worked on inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California...on December 3, 2014.

Inside the Space Flight Operations Facility (SFOF) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California...on December 3, 2014.

Inside the SFOF's Mission Support Room (MSR) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California...on December 3, 2014.

Sitting at the workstation of NASA Administrator Charles Bolden inside the MSR...at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California on December 3, 2014.

The jar of peanuts that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover team ate during the 'Seven Minutes of Terror' on August 5, 2012.

No comments:

Post a Comment