The direct field acoustic test is designed to ensure the spacecraft can weather the intense sound from the engines and boosters of NASA's Space Launch System rocket, which will send the Artemis II crew into space. Later this week, the speakers will start blasting the Orion crew module with sounds that mimic the acoustic energy from a rocket launch. On the bottom, the spacecraft's main heat shield is attached, with a reflective silver coating applied over an ablative material that will take the brunt of the nearly 5,000° Fahrenheit (2,800° Celsius) heat generated at the end of the mission when the capsule plunges back through Earth's atmosphere at a speed equivalent to 32 times the speed of sound. The upper part of the gumdrop-shaped spacecraft is covered in black silica tiles similar in appearance to the thermal protection tiles that flew on NASA's space shuttle. A stack of powerful speakers surrounds the Orion capsule on three sides.

Right now, the 16.5-foot-diameter (5-meter) Orion crew module-nearly 4 feet wider than the Apollo command module from the first era of lunar exploration-is situated at one end of the long hall of the cavernous Neil Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building at Kennedy. The hardware is nearly ready.' Far along, but more work to do The things that we've learned about so far in training, to see it for real in the spacecraft, it just gave you a good sense of how far along this thing is. It's neat to see the actual hardware all coming together. 'It was great to look inside,' said Reid Wiseman, the Artemis II commander. Sometime next year, they'll put on their orange pressure suits and strap into their seats for a full-up end-to-end test of the spacecraft's software, cockpit displays, and life support system. On future trips to the Florida spaceport, Koch and her crewmates will climb inside the Orion crew module multiple times for testing and checkouts. This week's crew visit to Kennedy Space Center is far from their last as the astronauts ready for their mission-the first flight by humans to the vicinity of the Moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972. 'So it's a new way that I feel bonded with this crew and also with the team.' 'We all said when we walked up to it the first time, that it gave us chills, and it really does,' said Christina Koch, a mission specialist on the Artemis II mission. The astronauts had an opportunity to peer through the hatch of the Orion crew capsule for the Artemis II mission, now largely complete and going through some final tests before it is connected to its power and propulsion module at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The three Americans and one Canadian slated to fly on NASA's Artemis II circumlunar mission had a 'pinch me' moment Monday when they got their first chance to visit the Orion spacecraft that will carry them around the Moon and back to Earth.

Space 2 update