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>> So today what you're going to hear
about is a critical test coming up.
Where we will take a really highly representative structural
model of the Orion crew module.
The part of the Orion where the crew will live and travel
through space to other destinations.
And the specialists are going to tell you
about a test that will be done.
Where they will talk a model
of the structure of the crew module.
And they will do a test to show how the emergency escape rocket
can pull the crew away if they ever need to be pulled
to safety during the rocket launch.
>> In the same facility,
we'll have the European service module delivered to the Cape.
Assemble it with the crew module.
And early next year the whole vehicle will be here
for the same sort of testing
that the crew module is experiencing today for AA-2.
Near-term test will fly this abort next year.
And we'll fly the first exploration mission beyond the
moon, as Joel mentioned, in about a year after that.
But what a test facility like this allows us to do,
besides what Nicole said, everything together.
Is to be able to demonstrate margin.
So even if you fly successfully, you may have been really close
to a failure, but you don't know it.
In a facility like this with the capability to overexpose
to a level we can predict.
Then validate all the models.
You make predictions.
You know what the result would be.
And then this would verify that your models are correct.
And then you can apply the analysis
to much different conditions.
And you know you've baselined it all.
Like this system will be able to extract the crew during ascent
up until we get high enough
that the vehicle can recover on its own.
But then the vehicle is designed so that, during the trip
to the moon or to Mars, it has an abort capability
to curtail the mission.
Turn around and come back.
Within the limits of orbital mechanics.
Like Apollo 13, you had to go to the moon and come back again.
But the system is all designed with consumables and power
and capability to be able
to bring the crew back safely any time.
>> So I'm the project manager
for the Orion testing here at SEC.
We've already conducted three tests,
large-scale tests for Orion program.
And this is going to be our fourth.
And it's the first full up flight vehicle
that we'll be testing here.
So we're really excited about it.
You can see it behind me.
Sitting in the Reverberant Acoustic Test Facility.
It's a test facility that goes up to 163 decibels.
We'll test this guy up here at about 155 decibels.
Just for relation.
If you stood behind a jet engine while it was running,
that's about 145 decibels.
So you can guess how loud it is.
We're going to run a series of tests where we creep up on
that really high level of 155.
Dr. Olansen back here is going to be sitting there
with his team looking at all the data.
Making sure that the structure's okay.
And that all their instrumentation is okay.
Basically we're checking this thing out so we can send it
down to the Cape so he can do a really successful test flight
on it next April.
So we're very excited about it.
Here we specialize.
And when all those systems are put together, either as a module
or an entire spacecraft.
We can test those here for the launch ascent
and on-orbit conditions.
So this is kind of the final piece
of everything that's combined that we do here.
And then we can send it down to the Cape.
We can do a flight test.
And then we can put people on it.
Ensure that they're going to be safe when they fly.
>> From an Orion perspective, this is one of four flight tests
that we're working towards.
This is the third of four.
Two tests have already been accomplished.
There was Pad Abort 1 back in 2010.
EFT-1 in 2014.
So we're up next in April.
We're actually flying this test.
It's a full stress test of the launch abort system.
To demonstrate that we can pull the crew away from vehicle
in case of an emergency.
To demonstrate that we can do that successfully.
And collect a lot of data in the environment as we go
through that test so that we can use that data
to anchor all the models
that exist throughout the Orion program.
It is all about crew safety.
The entire purpose, collecting the data, it's all to make sure
that the launch support system will work as advertised.
It will work in the stressful conditions that Larry mentioned
at the maximum dynamic pressure; right?
Trying to test at all those different configurations
to make sure that the crew can be returned safely should there
be any events during ascent.
So that is the whole purpose of the test.
It's why we're executing it.
We maintain that focus throughout the entire build.
So we want to make sure we can accomplish this test
and get all the data.
So that's our focus in putting everything together.
That's why we're here doing this test.
Making sure we, not only that the vehicle itself will survive.
But we accurately characterize it so we understand the data
that we're getting during the flight test itself.
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