NASA's Orion Engineers Available For Interviews In Seattle

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Feb 21, 2013, 01:49 ET

HOUSTON, Feb. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA is building a new spacecraft to carry humans farther than ever before as we begin the next era of exploration. Seattle media are invited to learn more about Orion when engineers helping design the spacecraft are in Seattle on Feb. 26 and 27.

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While in the area for program meetings at a local company producing elements of the spacecraft, several members of NASA's Orion crew module team will be speaking with the public and available for interviews.

NASA's Stuart McClung, manager for the Orion crew module landing and recovery system, and Larry Price, deputy program manager with Lockheed Martin, the primary Orion contractor, will be speak at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 26 at The Museum of Flight. The event is open to the public without charge.

Howard Hu, deputy manager of NASA's Orion vehicle integration office, and Nujoud Merancy, Orion systems engineer, will speak with students at the University of Washington. Both are University of Washington alumni and Seattle natives. The event is not open to the public, but interview opportunities will be available.

Charlie Lundquist, NASA's crew and service module manager for Orion, and Price will be available on Feb. 27 for interviews at Aerojet, a Seattle-area company building the launch abort system jettison motor and reaction control system elements for Orion's first test flights. Julie Van Kleeck, Aerojet's vice president for space and launch systems, also will be available.

Hu and Merancy will speak again with students at the University of Washington that day.

Other interview opportunities are available on request. Contact Dan Huot at [email protected] for details on any of these opportunities.

The Orion spacecraft will have the ability to send humans to the moon, asteroids and eventually Mars. Its first uncrewed test flight will take place next year, when it will be launched farther into space than any spacecraft designed for humans has gone in more than 40 years, and return to Earth at speeds greater than 20,000 mph.

Further information – including photos, videos and b-roll – on the Orion program can be found at:

http://www.nasa.gov/orion

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SOURCE NASA