NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA's Orion Spacecraft Passes Significant Design Milestone

An Orion crew module Ground Test Article at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Photo Credit: NASA

NASA has taken a major step towards building the next crew exploration vehicle by completing the Orion Project’s preliminary design review, or PDR. The preliminary design review is one in a series of checkpoints that occurs in the design life cycle of a complex engineering project before hardware manufacturing can begin. As the review process progresses, the vehicle design details are assessed to ensure the overall system meets all NASA mission requirements and for safe and reliable flight.

> News release
> Images: Orion Progress at Preliminary Design Review (PDF 6.9 Mb)

Artist’s concept of NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle in lunar orbit. Image Credit: NASA

America will send a new generation of explorers to the moon aboard NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle. Making its first flights to the International Space Station early in the next decade, Orion is part of the Constellation Program to send human explorers back to the moon, and then onward to Mars and other destinations in the solar system.