During a public meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) on Feb. 28, members stated that NASA has been investigating issues with the Orion side hatch over the past six to nine months.
During a Feb. 28 public meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), members said NASA has been looking at several concerns with the Orion side hatch over the last six to nine months.
William Bray, an ASAP member discussing NASA’s exploration programs at the briefing, indicated that there could be an impact on “contingency operations” on the launch pad or after splashdown due to the hatch issue.
“NASA has been examining several issues associated with the side hatch design, most likely over the past six to nine months,” he said. “It’s a specific area where it could affect the crew's ability to open the hatch in case of an emergency either on the launch pad at launch or landing on return to Earth.”
He mentioned that the astronaut office had been involved and that more work is needed to resolve the issue. He also noted the involvement of the astronaut office in addressing the issue, emphasizing their role in finding solutions or making operational changes, and highlighted that there is more work to be done.
He did not provide further details about the hatch issue. ASAP, in its annual report released in January, mentioned a “delta-pressure capability” issue with the hatch, and noted that the program is conducting side hatch delta-pressure testing to define the system’s limits and operational and contingency operations.
NASA spokesperson Rachel Kraft stated that additional analysis is required on the performance of hinges in the side hatch. She mentioned that full-scale testing is underway to verify the capability and develop operations to ensure the hatch can be opened under various potential pressure scenarios.
“Full-scale testing is underway to verify the capability and develop operations required to ensure the hatch can be opened in a variety of different potential pressure scenarios,” she added.
The issue with the hatch was one of two topics related to Orion discussed at the ASAP meeting. The other is the ongoing study of greater-than-expected erosion of heat shield “char” material during Orion’s reentry on the Artemis 1 uncrewed mission in December 2022. as reasons for delaying Artemis 2, the first crewed Orion mission, from late 2024 to no earlier than September 2025.
Bray explained that NASA is close to understanding the root cause of the char loss and expects to complete the investigation in the next month or coming months. This investigation may have implications for future missions beyond Artemis 2.
He said NASA expected to complete the heat shield investigation “in the next month or coming months” that could have implications for Artemis 2 and later missions.
For both the heat shield and hatch problems, he stated, “we don’t see any major obstacles at this time related to that” for Artemis 2.
