
It is set to become the spacecraft that takes humans to an asteroid and eventually Mars.

But before that, in 2018, Nasa's Orion capsule will fly 43,000 miles beyond the moon and back in a vital test of its systems.

Now, in a step towards that goal, its manufacturer Lockheed Martin says its has installed Orion into something known as the 'birdcage'.

This is its structural assembly tool and will be used by engineers in Florida to test and outfit the spacecraft ahead of its launch in 2018.

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It is set to become the spacecraft that takes humans to an asteroid and Mars. But before that, Nasa's Orion capsule will fly 43,000 miles beyond the moon and back to test its systems. Now, in a step towards that goal, its manufacturer Lockheed Martin says its has installed Orion into something known as the 'birdcage'. It is pictured here following unloading from Nasa's Supper Guppy aircraft

ORION'S NEXT TEST Nasa's Orion stacked atop a 70 metric ton Space Launch System rocket will launch from a newly refurbished Kennedy Space Center in November 2018. The uncrewed Orion will travel into Distant Retrograde Orbit, breaking the distance record reached by the most remote Apollo spacecraft, and then 30,000 miles farther out (275,000 total miles). The mission will last 22 days and will test system readiness for future crewed operations. Advertisement

'The structure shown here is 500lbs lighter than its Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) counterpart,' said Mike Hawes, Lockheed Martin Orion vice president and program manager.

'Once the final structural components such as longerons, bolts and brackets are added, total crew module structural weight savings from EFT-1 to EM-1 will total 700lbs.'

The Orion spacecraft arrived in Florida on Monday on Nasa's massive Super Guppy aircraft, which has a 156 feet wingspan.

At the Kennedy Space Center, the crew module will undergo several tests to ensure the structure is perfectly sound before being integrated with other elements of the spacecraft.

First it will undergo proof-pressure testing where the structural welds are stress tested to confirm it can withstand the environments it will experience in space.

The team will then use phased array technology to inspect the welds to make sure there are no defects.

Additional structural tests will follow including proof-pressure testing of the fluid system welds followed by x-ray inspections.

Once the crew module passes those tests it will undergo final assembly, integration and entire vehicle testing in order to prepare for EM-1, when Orion is launched atop Nasa's Space Launch System (SLS) for the first time.

Nasa's Orion stacked atop a 70 metric ton Space Launch System rocket will launch from a newly refurbished Kennedy Space Center in November 2018. The uncrewed Orion will travel into Distant Retrograde Orbit, breaking the distance record reached by the most remote Apollo spacecraft, and then 30,000 miles farther out (275,000 total miles)

The Orion spacecraft arrived in Florida on Monday on Nasa's massive Super Guppy aircraft, which has a 156 feet wingspan. At the Kennedy Space Center, the crew module will undergo several tests to ensure the structure is perfectly sound before being integrated with other elements of the spacecraft

Orion will undergo proof-pressure testing where the structural welds are stress tested to confirm it can withstand the environments it will experience in space. The team will then use phased array technology to inspect the welds to make sure there are no defects. Additional structural tests will follow including proof-pressure testing of the fluid system welds followed by x-ray inspections

The test flight will send Orion into lunar distant retrograde orbit – a wide orbit around the moon that is farther from Earth than any human-rated spacecraft has ever travelled.

It will be be controlled remotely as it flies 43,000 miles (70,000 km) beyond the moon.

The mission will last about three weeks and will certify the design and safety of Orion and SLS for future human-rated exploration missions.

In December, a video released by Nasa revealed exactly how Orion's first major trip into space in 2018 will unfold.

The video shows how the spacecraft will extend solar arrays measuring 62 feet (19m) once it reaches low Earth Orbit to help provide power for the spacecraft.

It will then set course for the Moon by firing its interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) - a liquid oxygen-liquid hydrogen-based system which has never been used before.

Orion will then perform a flyby of the Moon, harnessing the satellite's gravity to gain speed and propel itself to what is called 'distant retrograde orbit' (DRO), thousands of miles beyond the moon and almost half a million km from Earth.

The craft will then burn its main engine - a manoeuvring system left over from the defunct Space Shuttle programme - to leave the DRO and head back.

On its return trip, Orion will do another flyby of the moon and start approaching Earth.

Just outside Earth's atmosphere, the crew capsule will detach from the service module and other parts of the craft, before initiating re-entry and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

In this final part of the three-week-long trip, as shown in the video, the capsule will be ensured a safe landing by three parachutes.

Once the crew module passes its structural tests it will undergo final assembly, integration and entire vehicle testing in order to prepare for EM-1, when Orion is launched atop Nasa's Space Launch System (SLS) for the first time. Pictured is the SLS in comparison to other rockets

The final configuration of the SLS (left) will be the most powerful and biggest built. On the right is the separation of the three 13 by 14-foot Orion service modulefairings following lift off the Delta IV Heavy rocket in 2014

HOW DOES ORION COMPARE TO APOLLO 17? A 'new Apollo'? Orion bears a strong resemblance to the Apollo command module that carried Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon in 1969, but it is bristling with the latest technology The development of Orion has helped reawakened some of the atmosphere of exploration that surrounded Nasa during the Apollo missions that first landed mankind on the moon. But with almost exactly 42 years between the last Apollo mission, Apollo 17, which launched on 7 December 1972, and the first flight of Orion, the technology has moved on considerably. On the surface the two space capsules look the same - they are cone-shaped, and have a large heat shield to protect the astronauts from the intense conditions during re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere. However, Orion is larger, capable of carrying four crew members rather than Apollo's three. It will also have to carry far more supplies than Apollo ever did. The last Apollo mission saw a two man crew spend just three days on the moon's surface while a mission to an asteroid or to Mars could see astronauts spending up to 450 days in space. Like the Apollo Command Module, Orion has a Service Module attached that houses a single large engine, batteries and storage. However, Orion will carry a pair of solar arrays to help keep the capsule powered in space - technology that Apollo did not use. Orion also uses up-to-date computers, electronics, life support and propulsion systems. The electronics also have a far more sophisticated radiation shielding than the Apollo modules. Nasa has also used some hard lessons to improve the heat shield. Measuring 16.5 feet (five metres) across, it is the largest heat shield ever built for a spacecraft and has been covered in a new material called Avcoat. Nasa has also improved the parachutes, once used to land the Apollo spacecraft and slow the Space Shuttle, to help Orion land more safely in the water when it splashes down after a mission. Advertisement

Nasa has been conducting several parachute tests over the last months.

In August it even dropped a capsule model attached to some purposefully flawed parachutes in the middle of the Arizona desert.

The simulated botch was intended to test whether the crew module would survive in case of parachute malfunctioning.

In fact, despite the parachutes failing, Orion landed gently on the desert floor.

As part of the test, engineers also studied a change to the risers, which connect the parachutes to the vehicle from steel to a textile material as well as the use of lighter weight suspension lines for several of the parachutes.

Luckily even if the parachutes were to eventually fail, nobody would get hurt in Exploration Mission 1's unmanned capsule.

However, in April 2023, Nasa expects to conduct Exploration Mission 2 following the same route but carrying four crew members.

A third mission planned for 2026 will use a manned spacecraft to land on a small asteroid previously captured with a robotic arm.

From there, things can only get bolder - Orion was conceived as the craft that would enable humans to finally explore Mars in the 2030s.