Palestinian lady from the Gaza Strip is a leading figure in operating NASA's Orion Spacecraft and is responsible for software/hardware integration and testing to ensure the spacecraft is functioning properly.
85. Whosoever intercedes for
a good cause will have the reward thereof, and whosoever intercedes for an evil
cause will have a share in its burden. And Allah is Ever All-Able to do
(and also an All-Witness to) everything.
86. When you are greeted
with a greeting, greet in return with what is better than it, or (at least)
return it equally. Certainly, Allah is Ever a Careful Account Taker of all
things.
87. Allah! La ilaha illa
Huwa (none has the right to
be worshipped but He). Surely, He will gather you together on the Day of
Resurrection about which there is no doubt. And who is truer in statement
than Allah?4. Surah An-Nisa' (The Women)
The story of engineer Soha al-Qeshawi was published on NASA's Arabic Facebook page as a success story. The Facebook page's administrator referred to her as an intelligent Palestinian lady.
Speaking about herself, she said, "As a senior software engineer working on Orion, I am responsible for software/hardware integration and testing to ensure all the spacecraft's computer commands perform as expected for America's next generation spacecraft designed for deep space exploration."
Al-Qeshawi described her role within NASA's programme. "Working with bits and bytes all day is much cooler than you might think. I get to simulate Orion missions almost every day, just as if we are flying in space. I test the systems from launch, through flight and back to Earth."
Regarding her role in the system, she explained, "If I find any issues, I resolve them and retest to ensure a smooth and safe flight for our future crews."
Al-Qeshawi explained the reason behind her inclination towards spacecraft. "As a young girl growing up in Gaza City, Palestine, watching the space shuttle take off and come back to Earth always amazed me. That is what inspired me to become part of the space programme."
She discussed the initial steps taken to pursue this career. "I came to Houston to pursue my degree in engineering from the University of Houston at Clear Lake. Soon after graduation, I started work on the Space Shuttle Program.
"When the shuttle retired, I saw Orion as the new beginning for the next human spaceflight programme, and I wanted to be part of it."
A final word of advice from al-Qeshawi with regard to pursuing ambitions was, "My advice to young girls around the world: always have a dream, dream big, and work really hard to make your dream come true. Mine did."
NASA’s Orion spacecraft is built to take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before. Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities.
On December 5, 2014, Orion launched atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex Flight Test on the Orion Flight Test: a two-orbit, four-hour flight that tested many of the systems most critical to safety.
The Orion Flight Test evaluated launch and high speed re-entry systems such as avionics, attitude control, parachutes and the heat shield.
In the future, Orion will launch on NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System. More powerful than any rocket ever built, SLS will be capable of sending humans to deep space destinations such as an asteroid and eventually Mars. Exploration Mission-1 will be the first mission to integrate Orion and the Space Launch System.
The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle is NASA's planned spacecraft to take astronauts into space beyond Earth orbit. The agency launched the first test flight of the spacecraft in December 2014, with crewed missions possibly following in the early 2020s.
Similar in shape to the Apollo spacecraft, Orion is supposed to carry up to six astronauts to destinations such as a captured asteroid or within reach of Mars. But this will be an upgrade to Apollo, with the newer, and much larger, spacecraft sporting electronics decades more advanced than what astronauts used to fly to the moon.
Orion will fly in tandem with NASA's planned Space Launch System, a next-generation booster designed to bring astronauts out of low-Earth orbit again. Orion's first test flight, however, used a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy rocket.
Development history
Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for the spacecraft. The company began work on the spacecraft in 2004 during a competition for the contract, which was valued at up to $8.15 billion upon award in August 2006.
Orion, however, was originally built for NASA's Constellation program that was intended to bring humans to the moon and to Mars. That program was canceled in 2010 after President Barack Obama said that NASA should adopt a more "flexible destination" approach to space exploration.
NASA had already spent $5 billion on developing Orion at that point, and Lockheed had been working on the spacecraft for about six years (including the competition.) In early 2011, however, NASA hinted that the Orion spacecraft could be "repurposed." The agency followed that up in May with a plan for the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle — one that was reasonably close to the predecessor Orion spacecraft design, but could still be used for the new mandate.
"We made this choice based on the progress that's been made to date," Doug Cooke, associate administrator for NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C., said to reporters on May 24, 2011. "It made the most sense to stick with it (the Orion design)."
NASA's Orion spacecraft boasts the world's largest heat shield at 16.5 feet (5 meters) in diameter. Image uploaded June 5, 2014.
Spacecraft design
Orion can hold between two and six astronauts and is designed to launch on NASA's next-generation Space Launch System rocket, which is supposed to have its first test flight in 2017 or 2018.
The gumdrop-shaped capsule and the service module together are about 26 feet (8 meters) long with a diameter of 16.5 feet (5 m). The spacecraft's habitable volume is just 316 cubic feet (8.95 cubic meters), which is about 1.5 times larger than the Apollo spacecraft.
Orion's crew module is just one of five components of the spacecraft. Orion also contains a launch abort system to pull astronauts away from the spacecraft with escape rockets should something go wrong during launch.
The service module, built by the European Space Agency, contains solar panels for electricity, oxygen for breathing and rocket engines to propel the spacecraft. Orion also includes a spacecraft adapter (which shields the service module during launch) and an instrument unit that includes the guidance and control system for the booster.
A test version of NASA’s Orion spacecraft touches down in the Arizona desert after its most complicated parachute test to date.
First test flight and beyond
Orion's first uncrewed test flight, known as Exploration Flight Test-1, or EFT-1, launched on Dec. 5, 2014. This test flight marked the first time a spacecraft built for humans has flown outside low-Earth orbit in more than 40 years, since the last mission of the Apollo program in 1972.
The space capsule seemed to perform nearly flawlessly during its 4.5-hour test flight, NASA officials said. Orion soared 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) above Earth before turning around for a high-speed re-entry. The parachutes and huge heat shield on Orion seemed to work well during flight.
The spacecraft beamed back some amazing images of the limb of the planet from its window during the test before it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. U.S. Navy officials have now fished Orion out of the ocean, and the craft is being transported back to Florida where scientists will collect the data it recorded during its flight.
This first flight did not include the SLS, but instead used the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy rocket for a boost into orbit. Another test flight with Orion and SLS together will take place in 2017 or 2018. Crewed missions, according to the current NASA schedule, will take place in 2021.
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