Meet the Orion Service Module, the Europe-built brain of the Orion capsule space.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from space.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Artemis, Orion and the quest to get humans to the moon again
A virtual tour of European Service Modules headed for the moon on NASA s human spaceflight program Artemis is not what it seems. Astronauts will fly to the moon and an orbiting base but it s gentlemen first, please.
A cleanroom is a surreal space inhabited almost exclusively by enthusiastic men
If you ve ever been on a tour of a cleanroom a sterile environment where engineers build and test satellites and other spacecraft you will know it s a pretty surreal experience.
You re standing there, starring up at a rough and unfinished-looking object, seemingly wrapped in kitchen aluminum foil, with wires and solar panels sticking out at various angles and it s tough imagining what the thing will actually do when it s in an operational environment.
ESA - See the European Service Modules taking humankind forward to the Moon esa.int - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from esa.int Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Orion spacecraft and European Service Module (Credit: Airbus)
LEIDEN, Netherlands (Airbus PR) On 11 December the first European Service Module passed its Acceptance Review and was formally handed over to NASA, the hardware is now officially NASA property. This marks the end of 9 years of designing, building and putting all the pieces together to make the next-generation powerhouse that will propel Orion spacecraft to the Moon.
The Acceptance Review was held as teleconference with 85 people attending specifically for the first European Service Module – each module gets their own individual acceptance review.
Complete stack
The complete Orion stack will now be handed to NASA’s launch processing teams for a launch next year.