Standing in front of the completed Orion GTA, L to R are: NASA Space Shuttle Astronaut Nicholas Patrick; NCAM Executive Director Bruce Brailsford; Dr. Greg Dobson, NCAM; Dr. Norma Jean Mattei, Interim Dean, College of Engineering; Steve Attaya, John Alt, Lisa Johnson, Mark Lotz, NCAM; NASA Space Shuttle Astronaut Charles Hobaugh.
Two staff members of the College of Engineering’s National Center for Advanced Manufacturing (NCAM), John Alt and Mark Lotz, were recognized for their support to the NASA Orion Program in a ceremony held December 14 at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility.
Alt and Lotz were members of the Orion Weld Team, supporting the Friction Stir Welding of the Orion Crew Module Ground Test Article (GTA) using NCAM’s state of the art welding system called the Universal Weld System #2.
The ceremony was held to highlight a major milestone for NASA and the Orion Project: the successful completion of the GTA fabrication, proof pressure testing, and final outfitting. The Orion GTA is a precursor to the crewed spacecraft and will be used to validate production processes and tools by undergoing performance tests, beginning in early 2011. These tests will validate design for the crewed vehicle.
Orion is the flagship of NASA’s next-generation human spacecraft. To read more about Orion, visithttp://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/orion/.
NCAM operates under the UNO College of Engineering and is a partnership between UNO, NASA, and the State of Louisiana. Read more about NCAM and its advanced manufacturing technology at http://www.ncamlp.org.