OREANDA-NEWS. July 26, 2016. NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion industry team are at EAA Airventure Oshkosh 2016 in Wisconsin this week to recognize local supplier companies and showcase the technologies that will launch humans into deep space.

Learn more about Space Launch System and Orion
Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), which is on schedule to launch in 2018, will be the first time the SLS is integrated with the Orion spacecraft and flies into space. The mission 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 traveled. The uncrewed mission will last about three weeks and will prove the design and safety of Orion and SLS for human exploration missions to follow.

Recent SLS milestones leading up to EM-1 include the final qualification ground test of the SLS booster, continuation of RS-25 engine test-firing, and flight hardware production of the major elements that make up the rocket's core stage. Boeing is producing core stage flight hardware at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility and building out additional test and integration facilities. Additionally, Boeing and NASA are completing avionics systems at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center that will control launch and guidance systems for the rocket.

Aerojet Rocketdyne continues its testing of the RS-25 engines at NASA's Stennis Space Center to evaluate their performance under the extreme environments that the SLS vehicle will demand. For example, during the eight and a half minutes of flight, each of the four RS-25 engines will experience temperatures ranging from negative 423 degrees Fahrenheit to 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Lockheed Martin engineers will soon move the EM-1 crew module into the clean room at Kennedy Space Center and begin to install the propulsion and environmental control and life support systems. Exploration Mission-2 hardware is also in work.