For the first time in more than 50 years, NASA will send humans back to the moon with the launch of its Artemis program. The unmanned Artemis 1 test flight, which launches in August this year, will pave the way for the next man and first woman to walk on the Moon since the end of NASA’s Apollo era. At the heart of this Moon program is Orion, the partially reusable spacecraft designed by the US firm Lockheed Martin in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and manufactured by Airbus Defense and Space.
James Carpenter, ESA’s Science and Research Coordinator, spoke to Express.co.uk and stressed the importance of ESA in this NASA mission and said: “ESA is a key partner with NASA and we are working on the European Service Module with industrial partners such as Airbus. “
Sian Cleaver, industrial manager of Orion’s European service module at Airbus, told Express.co.uk: “At Airbus, we build, integrate and test the European service module for ESA.
“We’ve had these modules in our clean room for 18 months now and we’re integrating all the equipment together to deliver them as a package to our friends in the USA.
“They then build it with other parts of the spacecraft and launch it on a rocket to the Moon.”
While at FutureLab’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, both astronauts emphasized the importance of the UK and its collaboration as part of the European Space Agency.
Ms Cleaver remarked: “I work in Germany because that’s where the European Service Module is built, but before that I was in Stevenage.
“We have two large space sites in Stevenage and Portsmouth and we do a lot of exciting things there.
“We’re building Mars rovers, observation satellites, navigation technology – there’s so much going on in the UK.”
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The European Service Module is ESA’s contribution to NASA’s Orion spacecraft that will send astronauts to the Moon and beyond.
It provides electricity, water, oxygen and nitrogen and keeps the spacecraft at the right temperature and on course.
Ms Cleaver added: “The European Service Module is probably the most important part of the whole mission.
“Once you ascend into space, you lose the rocket as it falls back to the Moon. What continues is the Orion spacecraft.