NEW YORK: Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston are currently testing the spacesuits that astronauts will wear in the agency’s Orion spacecraft on trips to deep space. The Orion mission will carry astronauts further into space than they’ve ever been before, possibly to an asteroid, and one day to Mars.In the photo above, taken March 17, members of the Johnson team completed a so-called Vacuum Pressure Integrated Suit Test to verify that the suit will meet the standards required to be worn aboard the Orion spacecraft, which was built to carry astronauts to deep space and back.During the test, which was the first of four, the engineers suited up and entered an 11-foot chamber designed to simulate the vacuum environment experienced in the spacecraft. The suit was connected to life support systems and then the air was sucked out of the chamber.
The suit is a version of the launch and entry suits already worn by space shuttle astronauts, and will contain all the necessary functions to support life in the unlikely event the spacecraft loses pressure. It will also enable astronauts to leave their spacecraft for spacewalks.
