Media Invited to View Orion Flight Test Prelaunch Progress with NASA Administrator

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Jun 12, 2014, 04:56 ET

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With just six months until its first trip to space, NASA's Orion spacecraft is taking shape at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Media are invited to a status update on Orion and to see the spacecraft alongside NASA Administrator Charles Bolden at 11:30 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, June 18. The update will be carried live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

Technicians began attaching the crew module on top of the completed service module on Monday. This is the first step in moving the three primary Orion elements – the crew module, service module and launch abort system – into the correct configuration for launch.

Participants in the briefing include:

-- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
-- Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana
-- NASA Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer
-- Lockheed Martin Orion Program Manager Cleon Lacefield

Media and the public also can ask questions during the briefing on Twitter using the hashtag #AskNASA.

U.S. news media without Kennedy accreditation must apply by 4 p.m. Monday, June 16. Media should plan to arrive at Kennedy's press site by 10:45 a.m. for transportation to the event. International media accreditation for this event is closed.

Two forms of government-issued identification are required to receive a badge, one with a photograph such as a driver's license or passport. Badges will be available for pick up at the Kennedy Badging Office, located on State Road 405 east of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Hours for the Kennedy Badging Office are 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Journalists needing accreditation should apply online at:

https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

To attend the event, news media representatives must be dressed in full-length pants, flat shoes that entirely cover the feet, and shirts with sleeves.

Orion is being prepared for its first launch, set for December. The uncrewed flight will go 3,600 miles above Earth, in a four-and-a-half-hour mission to test the systems that will be critical for survival in future human missions to deep space. After two orbits, it will reenter Earth's atmosphere at almost 20,000 miles per hour, for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

NASA plans to use Orion to send astronauts on deep space missions to explore an asteroid and eventually Mars.

For more information on Orion, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/orion

For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

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SOURCE NASA