lrc20210323h1porion000101.jpg Engineers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia begin a new series of four water impact drop tests with a test version of the capsule for NASA’s Orion spacecraft to better understand what Orion and its crew may experience when landing in the Pacific Ocean after Artemis missions to the Moon. Credits: NASA

Engineers will drop an 14,000-pounds test version of the Orion spacecraft into the Hydro Impact Basin at NASA's Langley Research Center's Landing and Impact Research Facility in Hampton, Virginia at 1:45 p.m. EDT Tuesday, April 6.

The test will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app and the agency’s website, and will livestream on multiple agency social media platforms, including the Facebook channels for Orion and Langley.

Participants include:

• Debbie Korth, Orion Crew and Service Module manager, NASA’s Johnson Space Center
• Jacob Putnam, data analyst, NASA’s Langley Research Center

The public may ask questions on social media using #AskNASA.

Media may send questions to Kristyn Damadeo at kristyn.damadeo@nasa.gov.

This series of drop tests began March 23 to finalize computer models for loads and structures prior to the Artemis II flight test, NASA’s first mission with crew aboard Orion. Artemis II will carry astronauts around the Moon and back, paving the way to land the first woman and next man on the lunar surface and establish a sustainable presence at the Moon under the Artemis program. The current test series builds on previous tests and uses a configuration of the crew module based on the spacecraft’s final design.

For more information on Orion, visit:

www.nasa.gov/orion

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

www.nasa.gov

-end-

Press Contacts

Kathryn Hambleton
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
kathryn.hambleton@nasa.gov

Kristyn Damadeo
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia
757-755-0366
kristyn.damadeo@nasa.gov

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