Metalex Manufacturing Inc., located in Cincinnati, had a visit from officials of the space industry recently.
According to an item from the Associated Press, Brian Duffy was among the visitors to Metalex. Duffy, who retired from NASA in 2001, flew a total of four missions for the agency, and has a total of over 40 days in space. Duffy joined U.S. Senator Rob Portman, community leaders, students, and local officials, to visit Metalex's machine shop.
The company contributes to both the Orion program and the Space Launch System program. The Orion spacecraft is designed for missions to deep space, and will carry astronauts to asteroids, or even to Mars, which is one of the main reasons for its development. The capsule has three parts: a launch abort system; the crew module; and the service module, which holds the propulsion and power systems. Solar panels on the service module are designed to use sunlight to create electricity, which will allow Orion to remain in space for months.
The Orion, which is eleven feet long, will be launched by a massive rocket known as the Space Launch System, which NASA is still developing. In 2018, NASA plans an unmanned test flight of both the SLS rocket and the Orion.
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