Engineers completed key tests the week of March 18 to help ensure NASA’s Orion spacecraft is ready from liftoff to splashdown for missions to the Moon. Teams successfully tested one of the motors on Orion’s Launch Abort System responsible for taking the crew to safety in an emergency during launch, pictured here. At its facility in Elkton, Maryland, Northrop Grumman hot fired a motor for Orion’s launch abort system. The attitude control motor is responsible for orienting the crew module for landing in the event that Orion’s ride to space experiences a failure during launch or ascent. The motor is essential because it helps stabilize Orion and control its trajectory as it moves away from the rocket. During the 30-second test, the motor produced more than 7,000 pounds of thrust from eight valves. This test was the first in a series of evaluations aimed at qualifying the attitude control motor for crewed missions. Orion’s launch abort system is positioned on top of the crew module and i...