29 Aug 2016

Applying Armstrong’s expertise with testing unique flight configurations, the center managed the development of the pad-launch-abort system flight test for NASA's next-generation spacecraft,Orion. The launch abort system will be used to pull the astronaut's crew module away from the rocket should an anomaly happen during launch to orbit.
Armstrong led the integration of a full-size Orion test article along with the development of the ground support equipment, flight instrumentation and launch facility construction for the crew module pad abort test that launched successfully from the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in 2010.

The full-scale flight-test article was delivered to the center via the U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft in 2008.
After arrival of the launch abort test module, work platforms were placed around the capsule to install wiring and instrumentation needed for the flight test.
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/Orion/Small/ED08-0090-318.jpg

Before departure to New Mexico for launch, the final preparations included engineers and technicians conducting mass properties tests on the capsule demonstrator in the center's Flight Loads Lab. In addition, they determined how much the vehicle weighed and how that weight was distributed by taking very accurate weights at three points while the capsule was tilted at varying angles.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/multimedia/imagegallery/Orion/inde...

Also completed before departure was related moment-of-inertia tests in the center's lab to measure the vehicle’s resistance to rotation by forcing small rotations and precisely measuring the resulting motion. The pad-abort launch demonstrator left Armstrong, formerly Dryden, in 2009 for the White Sands launch site.

Image:
(A)(B) Air Force loadmasters oversee the unloading of the full-scale Orion abort test crew module mockup from a C-17 cargo aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base, March 28.
(C) Technicians positioned an Orion flight test crew module inside a Mississippi Air National Guard C-17.