NASA’s Orion Spacecraft Acoustic Testing: Ready for Artemis II Moon Mission?

On August 13, inside NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Orion spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis II mission underwent crucial acoustic tests to ensure it can handle the speed and vibration during its 10-day lunar mission. (Artist rendering of NASA’s Orion spacecraft.) Credit: NASA

The Orion spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis II mission successfully underwent acoustic testing at Kennedy Space Center. This verifies its readiness for the upcoming 10-day lunar journey. The Artemis II astronauts previewed their spacecraft, with integration plans set for fall.

On August 13, inside the high bay of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, engineers and technicians successfully concluded a set of acoustic tests. These tests were performed to verify that the Orion spacecraft, designated for NASA’s Artemis II mission, can endure the speed and vibration during its launch and the subsequent 10-day lunar mission. This mission marks the first Artemis journey with astronauts on board.

While wearing clean room suits, the Artemis II crew members (from left: NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen) check out their Orion crew module inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on August 7, 2023. The crew module is undergoing acoustic testing ahead of integration with the European Service Module. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

For the testing, the crew module was encased with large stacks of speakers. Engineers also attached microphones, accelerometers, and various other devices to measure the impact of different acoustic levels. The data gathered from these tests is now set for analysis by the engineers and technicians.

Before the tests, the four astronauts of the Artemis II mission paid a visit to the high bay, getting a glimpse of their future journey to the Moon. With the successful completion of this test, technicians at the Kennedy Space Center are gearing up to merge Orion’s crew and service modules in the upcoming fall.

Artemis II crew members, shown inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, check out their Orion crew module on August 8, 2023. From left are: Victor Glover, pilot; Reid Wiseman, commander; Christina Hammock Koch, mission specialist; and Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Artemis II is scheduled to launch in November 2024. The roughly 10-day journey aims to assess NASA’s core capabilities for deep space human exploration, utilizing the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft. This maiden voyage with astronauts will set the stage for future lunar missions.