Latest Project Constellation Stories

HAMPTON, Va., June 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- What goes up must come down, and it will be NASA Langley Research Center's job to make sure that when astronauts return from space, they land safely. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) On June 8, NASA Langley will break ground on a $1.7 million Hydro Impact Basin that will serve to validate and certify that future space vehicles, such as Orion, are designed for safe water landings. The water impact basin will be 115...

LEAMINGTON SPA, United Kingdom, May 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Altair Engineering, Inc., a leading global provider of technology and services that empowers client innovation and decision-making, announced today that Martin Jones has joined its Altair ProductDesign (PD) consultancy division to lead the full development of an innovative new urban electric vehicle (EV). Jones joins Altair from Tata Technologies where he was responsible for leading vehicle development programs. He has a broad range of...

SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Aerojet, a GenCorp (NYSE: GY) company, successfully completed a second set of hot-fire test sequences of its R-1E 25-pound thrust, bipropellant engine. This second test included more than 17,250 seconds of total burn time, demonstrating engine flexibility to operate under a broad variety of conditions expected for NASA's Orion service module. Initial test results indicate the engine performed successfully in simulated space-flight mission...

SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Aerojet, a GenCorp (NYSE: GY) company, along with NASA and the Lockheed Martin-led Orion industry team, successfully launched the first integrated Orion launch abort system flight test today. Conducted at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the test drew more than 1,100 attendees including space industry leaders, NASA center dignitaries and Congressional representatives. Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor to NASA...

WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M., May 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Pad Abort 1 flight test, a launch of the abort system designed for the Orion crew vehicle, lifted off at 7 a.m. MDT Thursday at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) near Las Cruces, N.M. The flight lasted about 135 seconds from launch until the crew module touchdown about a mile north of the launch pad. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The flight was the first...

The new Orion crew capsule was successfully launched on Thursday as part of a test of its launch-abort system. The launch-abort system catapulted the capsule from a desert launch pad at 7 a.m. and reached speeds of about 450 mph in just 2.5 seconds.  The capsule landed about a mile north of the launch site as hundreds of onlookers clapped and cheered. The Orion launch-abort system is designed to whisk astronauts and the capsule to safety in case a problem on the launch pad occurs during...

WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M., May 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Within 97 seconds of an initial 500,000-pound blast of solid rocket motor thrust, Orion completed its first successful flight test of the launch abort system at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range near Las Cruces, New Mexico at 7 a.m. MT. Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), the prime contractor to NASA for the Orion crew exploration vehicle, led the industry team's development effort on this new system that will significantly improve...

With hundreds of tests and verifications officially complete, members of the Flight Test Readiness Review board unanimously agreed that Pad Abort 1 (PA-1) is ready for launch May 6 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.Often in a readiness review prior to any launch, there are open items that need to be closed before a mission gets the "go-ahead." If there is an issue with hardware or software, the launch date could be delayed until it is fixed. However, on April 22, the PA-1 team concluded that...

BERLIN, April 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Graebert(TM) GmbH - one of the pioneering companies in high-performance CAD solutions for desktop and mobile devices - today announced several updates and industry acclaim for its recently announced ARES(TM) 2D/3D CAD software. ARES uses a common design interface and is the first CAD solution to run natively across Microsoft® Windows®, Apple® Mac® OS X and Linux®, while also being optimized for specific operating system features and...

NASA Television will provide live coverage of the May 6 launch of the Pad Abort 1 flight test. The broadcast will begin at 8:30 a.m. EDT from the launch site at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range near Las Cruces, N.M.The launch window extends from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. EDT, with liftoff targeted for the beginning of the window. Pad Abort 1 will be the first fully-integrated test of the launch abort system being developed for the Orion crew vehicle. The information gathered through the test...