NASA’s Super Guppy Gives Mars-Bound Spacecraft A Lift

NASA is transporting the Orion spacecraft from its Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana to Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a Super Guppy cargo aircraft. Not only did it carry Orion’s pressure vessel to safety from New Orleans but it can carry other stuff as well since it can fly with the weight of up to 150,000 pounds in cargo. It was used in the 1960’s to carry parts of the Saturn V rocket from California to Florida.

The large aircraft has also been used to ship NASA’s supersonic jets as well as modules from the International Space Station.

Nasa workers handled a special delivery as the massive Super Guppy aircraft opened to reveal the smaller – but equally precious – Orion capsule.

Crews at Michoud have spent the past several years constructing the Orion crew vehicle, which is created to launch four astronauts toward the moon in 2018.

NASA has stated that Orion and SLS are pivotal for the agency’s plans to send astronauts to the surface of Mars in the 2030s. It can carry a maximum payload of more than 26 tons.

More than 30 flight-subsystem deliveries to Kennedy are planned in 2016 for installation into Orion: antennas, beacons, navigation equipment, vision processing, power management, data processing and vehicle management components all will complete manufacturing and testing this year to support the initial power-on of the EM-1 Orion spacecraft at Kennedy in early 2017.

Now that Orion has safely arrive at Kennedy, it will be transported to the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building where it will be integrated with the spacecraft’s remaining components. After all of this is done, Orion will take its second flight (and its first flight on SLS), now scheduled for 2018. The flight, dubbed Exploration Mission-1, is meant to enable Nasa to test the spacecraft’s ability to accomplish future missions into deep space.

The capsule will then orbit around the moon for about six days before traveling back to Earth. This will help develop the core capabilities needed to eventually to Mars.

Public opinion is crucial to any NASA program, especially under changing administrations.

The selection of the former Space Shuttle firing room controller also makes her the first woman to oversee a NASA liftoff and launch team.