AA-2 Crew Module/Separation Ring Project Team

Join your co-workers and enjoy donuts and coffee as we celebrate the Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2) test launch at the JSC AA-2 Watch Party the morning of Tuesday, July 2. The center will be showing the launch in the Teague Auditorium lobby live at 5:45 a.m., and then replay it throughout the morning. Join us at at 5:45 a.m. — or any time before 10 a.m. for the replay. We hope to see you there!

The AA-2 Crew Module/Separation Ring (CSR) project team is comprised of outstanding members from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Langley Research Center and Armstrong Research Center. The agency teammates brought their expertise and commitment to the table and have been integral to the project’s success. The CSR project team is very proud to have successfully completed and delivered their contributions to the flight test article (FTA) in December 2018—ahead of the original project schedule after Orion program management requested a launch date acceleration. Doing that for a project of this scale was only possible thanks to a lot of hard work and flexibility from the entire team. From the project manager to the technicians handling the hardware, every person stepped up to resolve challenges along the way.    

Since December, team members spent significant time at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to perform integration and testing with the booster and Launch Abort System elements. With the final series of tests complete with Cape Canaveral Air Force Station ground assets, the team looks forward to launch day.    In the last year, the group has been preparing for launch day. Most of the testing done in the integrated avionics and software test bed, and with the FTA, used the same launch countdown checklist approach and sequencing that will be repeated on launch day. Also, the team executed a series of simulations with malfunctions leading up to launch to practice launch day decision making and help refine launch day procedures and go/no-go criteria. Last, a couple of joint simulations with the booster and management teams wrapped up a final mission dress rehearsal.

The CSR project team and the FTA are ready for launch!