YORBA LINDA, Calif., 29 July 2008. Honeywell has selected a Spirent GPS/Inertial simulator from Spirent Federal Systems Inc., a provider of GPS/GNSS satellite simulators, to develop, integrate, and verify the navigation system for NASA's Orion project.

The Spirent simulator includes comprehensive modeling of the space environment and will provide multiple radio frequency (RF) outputs. The system also provided for the Orion project will include multiple SimINERTIAL unitsSpirent Inertial interfaces that provide Honeywell engineers the capability of emulating Inertial sensor output while simultaneously simulating GPS RF signals.

The Orion crew capsule is part of NASA's Constellation Program. The program is targeted at the development of a new human space transportation system that will send explorers to the International Space Station, the moon, and beyond in coming decades. The first crewed mission of the Ares I rocket and Orion spacecraft is scheduled for spring 2015.

Lockheed Martin serves as the prime contractor to NASA to build the Orion crew exploration vehicle and is responsible for design, development, testing, and evaluation.

Honeywell is the subcontractor responsible for avionics, including navigation, mission hardware and software, and flight-control systems.

"Spirent's simulators with SimINERTIAL make controlled, repeatable testing of integrated GPS and Inertial systems an easily-obtained reality," comments Ellen Hall, president of Spirent Federal. "NASA is using the latest technology available to create Orion."