A full-size test version of the European Space Agency (ESA)-provided Orion spacecraft service module arrived at the NASA Glenn Research Center’s Plum Brook Station Space Power Facility late last month for thorough testing.

The tests, planned to begin in February, are meant to “verify the structural integrity of the hardware to withstand the dynamic environment of launch into space atop the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket,” NASA said in a statement.

The Orion spacecraft is being developed to send astronauts to deep space destinations, including an asteroid placed in lunar orbit and Mars. The ESA and its contractor, Airbus, are providing the service module (European Service Module, ESM) for Orion, which supplies power and in-space propulsion for the spacecraft as well as air and water for the crew. The ESA service module is currently set to be used at least for Orion’s first mission, Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1).

The European Space Agency's Orion Service Module arrived at NASA's Plum Brook Station in November for testing at the Space Power Facility in 2016. photo: NASA.
The European Space Agency’s Orion Service Module arrived at NASA’s Plum Brook Station in November for testing at the Space Power Facility in 2016. photo: NASA.

The first test will focus on the service module’s deployable solar array wing. Built by Airbus, the arrays are 62 feet long. NASA engineers will ensure the wing fully extends and retracts on commander in the proper configuration.

In March and April, NASA plans to utilize the center’s Reverberant Acoustic Test Facility, the world’s most powerful spacecraft acoustic test chamber, to examine the effects of the noise equivalent of 20 jet engines at full thrust on the test piece, NASA said.

Every element of the test ESM is to be hit with at least 152 decibels and 20-10,000 hertz of sound pressure and vibration, both separately and fully assembled.

From May to July, the ESM is set to be placed on a vibration table at the Mechanical Vibration Facility that simulates the shaking the spacecraft will experience when launching on the SLS rocket.

“A series of repeated configuration tests will vibrate the stacked parts of the ESM from every possible angle. We want to push it past the extremes it might experience in the launch environment,” Robert Overy, chief engineer of the ESM Integration Office at NASA Glenn, said in a statement.

The ESM is also fitted with three protective fairings that protect the avionics and electronics during ascent into space. The fairings are eventually jettisoned off during launch by a chain of pyrotechnic shocks. Facility engineers plan to test the effectiveness of the pyro-shock action near the end of August. They will also conduct a pyro-shock test of the spacecraft adaptor to simulate the shock the service module will experience during separation, NASA said.

The final test in the sequence will then repeat the solar array deployment test on the full stacked ESM test piece.

“The test campaign aims to analyze and validate every element and function of the structural test article, which represents Orion’s power and life support systems,” NASA said.

Artist's concept of the completed Orion spacecraft. Image: NASA.
Artist’s concept of the completed Orion spacecraft. Image: NASA.

Rep. Mary Kaptur (D-Ohio) thanked NASA’s European partners at an event marking the arrival of the test ESM. “To be united with our European allies in this great quest is truly a remarkable and important undertaking.”

Kaptur highlighted that compared to previous testing done at the Space Power Facility, the ESM tests will be “geometrically greater than anything that’s been tested here before. Maybe 20 times, maybe more.”

Jim Free, the director of the Glenn Research Center, agreed with Kaptur on the importance of the international cooperation.

“We’re building on international partnership, built by the ISS [International Space Station] that’s flying today. That’s where we come form and the strength that we rely on to fulfill our goal in developing the testing for this vehicle,” Free said at the event.

“That testing is going to identify any risks that we haven’t gone through, any design problems, any potential failures right here in a control environment on the ground. And that’s the best place to find those issues, is before we’re in flight,” Free added.

In September NASA said the Orion space vehicle would fly with humans no later than April 2023 (Defense Daily, Sept. 16).

The prime contractor for Orion is Lockheed Martin [LMT], which is also producing the protective fairings for the ESM. The SLS is being developed by Boeing [BA].