{"id":41509,"date":"2020-09-01T19:26:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T23:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?migration=converted-node-359442"},"modified":"2024-06-03T10:59:45","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T14:59:45","slug":"what-is-orion-grades-k-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/learning-resources\/for-kids-and-students\/what-is-orion-grades-k-4\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Orion? (Grades K-4)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>This article is for students grades K-4.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Orion \/o-<strong>rie<\/strong>-un\/ is a new NASA spacecraft. Orion is an important part of the Artemis missions. Artemis is NASA\u2019s plan to explore more of the Moon. Artemis will send the first woman and first person of color to work on the Moon. Astronauts will travel on Orion from Earth. They will go the Gateway spaceship that will fly around and around the Moon. From the Gateway, they will catch a ride to land on the Moon.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"\" class=\"hds-media hds-module wp-block-image\"><div class=\"margin-left-auto margin-right-auto nasa-block-align-inline\"><div class=\"hds-media-wrapper margin-left-auto margin-right-auto\"><figure class=\"hds-media-inner hds-cover-wrapper hds-media-ratio-fit \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_1.png\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1041\" height=\"1246\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_1.png?w=1041\" class=\"attachment-2048x2048 size-2048x2048\" alt=\"Illustration of the Orion spacecraft flying back to Earth\" style=\"transform: scale(1); transform-origin: 50% 50%; object-position: 50% 50%; object-fit: cover;\" block_context=\"nasa-block\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_1.png 1041w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_1.png?resize=251,300 251w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_1.png?resize=768,919 768w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_1.png?resize=856,1024 856w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_1.png?resize=334,400 334w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_1.png?resize=501,600 501w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_1.png?resize=752,900 752w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_1.png?resize=1003,1200 1003w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1041px) 100vw, 1041px\" loading=\"eager\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What Will Orion Do?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Orion will take astronauts farther than they have ever gone. Orion will do many things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Carry the astronauts safely to space. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Be a home while the astronauts through space.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bring the astronauts back to Earth safely from space.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Be a \u201clifeboat\u201d if the crew has to return to Earth in an emergency.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Orion will launch on a new rocket. The rocket is the Space Launch System. It is called SLS for short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How Is Orion Made?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Orion will ride on top of the SLS. Orion is made so that its weight is as light as it can be. This means the SLS will not need to use so much fuel to launch and has room for other tools and things. Orion is made to be the safest transportation to carry four astronauts to the Moon or farther. It has everything they will need to live and work in space for up to 21 days per mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Orion has three main parts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol>\n<li>The <strong>launch abort system<\/strong> is at the top. This part is also called the <strong>LAS<\/strong>. It will work if there is an emergency during launch. The LAS will start to work in less than one second to pull the crew module where the astronauts sit away from the rest of the rocket.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>crew module<\/strong> is in the middle. This is the part where up to four astronauts can sit and live while they travel through space.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>service module<\/strong> is at the bottom. This part has important things like air and water for the astronauts. Orion will use energy from the Sun. This power is called solar energy. Orion has solar panels that open like the letter X outside of the service module after it is safely in space. These panels absorb sunlight and turn it into electricity.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n<div id=\"\" class=\"hds-media hds-module wp-block-image\"><div class=\"margin-left-auto margin-right-auto nasa-block-align-inline\"><div class=\"hds-media-wrapper margin-left-auto margin-right-auto\"><figure class=\"hds-media-inner hds-cover-wrapper hds-media-ratio-cover \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1152\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_2.jpg?w=2048\" class=\"attachment-2048x2048 size-2048x2048\" alt=\"Artist's drawing of the three main sections of Orion\" style=\"transform: scale(1); transform-origin: 50% 50%; object-position: 50% 50%; object-fit: cover;\" block_context=\"nasa-block\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_2.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_2.jpg?resize=300,169 300w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_2.jpg?resize=768,432 768w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_2.jpg?resize=1024,576 1024w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_2.jpg?resize=1536,864 1536w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_2.jpg?resize=400,225 400w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_2.jpg?resize=600,338 600w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_2.jpg?resize=900,506 900w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_2.jpg?resize=1200,675 1200w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_2.jpg?resize=2000,1125 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How is NASA Testing Orion?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Before a spacecraft flies on a mission, NASA must test it. NASA must be sure the spacecraft works well and is safe. Orion had its first flight test in 2014. It launched from Florida on a rocket called a Delta IV Heavy. (The IV is the Roman numeral for 4.) No people rode on Orion during this test. The spacecraft flew around Earth two times. Then, the spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean near California. NASA tested the LAS with no astronauts. The LAS passed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What\u2019s Next for Orion?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Orion\u2019s next test will be part of Artemis I. (I is the Roman numeral for 1.) Orion will launch on the SLS rocket for the first time. No people will fly on this test. Orion will launch from Florida. After Orion is safely in space, the rocket will fall away from Orion. The spacecraft will keep going and fly past and around the Moon. Orion will return to Earth and splash down in the ocean. This trip will take about three weeks. Orion will travel more than one million miles total. NASA will check Orion to see if everything worked well. Then, Orion will be ready for astronauts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The next mission will be Artemis II. (II is the Roman numeral for 2.) Orion will fly past the Moon like Artemis I. This mission will have astronauts. It will last about 10 days. The flight will be the farthest people have ever traveled into space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Artemis III will take astronauts to the Gateway. (III is the Roman numeral for 3.) From there, the crew will go to the Moon and study its South Pole. After the mission, the crew will come home in Orion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>More About Orion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/general\/orion-activities-and-coloring-sheets-for-kids\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Orion for Kids<\/a><br> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/OrionAtoZ_ColoringBook.pdf?emrc=02ba4e\" target=\"_blank\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/OrionAtoZ_ColoringBook.pdf?emrc=02ba4e\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Orion A to Z Coloring Book (PDF)<\/a><br> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/learning-resources\/for-kids-and-students\/what-is-the-space-launch-system-grades-k-4\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/learning-resources\/for-kids-and-students\/what-is-the-space-launch-system-grades-k-4\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Story: What Is the Space Launch System?<\/a><br> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/learning-resources\/for-kids-and-students\/what-is-the-artemis-program-grades-k-4\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/learning-resources\/for-kids-and-students\/what-is-the-artemis-program-grades-k-4\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">What Is the Artemis Program?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/learning-resources\/for-kids-and-students\/what-is-orion-grades-5-8\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">What Is Orion? (Grades 5-8)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"\" class=\"nasa-gb-align-center nasa-button-link padding-y-1 padding-x-0 hds-module wp-block-nasa-blocks-related-link\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/learning-resources\/for-students-grades-k-4\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"button-primary button-primary-md link-external-true\" aria-label=\"Explore More For Students Grades K-4\">\n\t\t<span class=\"line-height-alt-1\">Explore More For Students Grades K-4<\/span>\n\t\t<svg viewBox=\"0 0 32 32\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><circle class=\"button-primary-circle\" cx=\"16\" cy=\"16\" r=\"16\"><\/circle><path d=\"M8 16.956h12.604l-3.844 4.106 1.252 1.338L24 16l-5.988-6.4-1.252 1.338 3.844 4.106H8v1.912z\" class=\"color-spacesuit-white\"><\/path><\/svg>\n\t<\/a>\n\n\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article is for students grades K-4. Orion \/o-rie-un\/ is a new NASA spacecraft. Orion is an important part of the Artemis missions. Artemis is NASA\u2019s plan to explore more of the Moon. Artemis will send the first woman and first person of color to work on the Moon. Astronauts will travel on Orion from [...]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":48731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nasa_hds_core_meta_l10n":"en-US","nasa_hds_core_meta_article_editor":"42","nasa_hds_core_meta_article_contacts":["28"],"nasa_hds_core_meta_article_topic":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_linked_locations":[],"nasa_hds_core_meta_article_related_articles":[],"hds_migrate_meta_pr_release_id":"","hds_migrate_meta_pr_release_type":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_location_x":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_location_y":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_gallery_images":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2849,3290,3773],"news-tags":[],"internal-terms":[10610,11405,4152],"coauthors":[12657],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"What Is Orion? (Grades K-4)","url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/learning-resources\/for-kids-and-students\/what-is-orion-grades-k-4\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/learning-resources\/for-kids-and-students\/what-is-orion-grades-k-4\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_1.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_1.png"},"articleSection":"Learning Resources","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NASA STEM Team"}],"creator":["NASA STEM Team"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"NASA","logo":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/themes\/nasa\/assets\/images\/nasa-logo.svg"},"keywords":["Learning Resources","For Kids and Students","Grades K - 4","Read it!"],"dateCreated":"2020-09-01T23:26:00Z","datePublished":"2020-09-01T23:26:00Z","dateModified":"2024-06-03T14:59:45Z"},"rendered":"<meta name=\"parsely-title\" content=\"What Is Orion? (Grades K-4)\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-link\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/learning-resources\/for-kids-and-students\/what-is-orion-grades-k-4\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-type\" content=\"post\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-image-url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_1.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-pub-date\" content=\"2020-09-01T23:26:00Z\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-section\" content=\"Learning Resources\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-tags\" content=\"Learning Resources,For Kids and Students,Grades K - 4,Read it!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-author\" content=\"NASA STEM Team\" \/>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/nasa.gov\/p.js"},"read_time":4,"time_ago":"4 years","featured_image":{"id":48731,"file":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/edu_what_is_orion_1.png","title":"edu_what_is_orion_1","alt":"Illustration of the Orion spacecraft flying back to Earth","caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41509"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/153"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41509"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":667405,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41509\/revisions\/667405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41509"},{"taxonomy":"news-tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-tags?post=41509"},{"taxonomy":"internal-terms","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-terms?post=41509"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=41509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}