Airbus ESM Ready for Artemis II Mission

Airbus has completed delivery and integration of the European Service Module (ESM-2) for NASA’s Orion spacecraft ahead of the Artemis II mission, which will carry astronauts around the Moon. The module, built for the European Space Agency, is now fuelled and ready for flight at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Artemis II will be the first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years. The flight will carry NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency, on a 10-day mission around the Moon. The mission follows the uncrewed Artemis I test flight and is intended to validate systems required for future lunar landings.

The ESM provides propulsion, electrical power, thermal regulation, and life support supplies for the Orion spacecraft. It carries approximately 90 kg of oxygen and 240 kg of water for the crew. Its four solar arrays generate around 11.2 kW of electrical power to support onboard systems, including communications and environmental controls.

The module is equipped with 33 engines, including a main engine derived from the Space Shuttle Orbital Maneuvering System, eight auxiliary engines and 24 smaller thrusters for attitude control and manoeuvring. These systems will be used for trajectory adjustments and lunar flyby operations.

“The transition from Artemis I to Artemis II is the shift from a test vehicle to a living space,” said Marc Steckling, Head of Earth Observation, Science and Space Exploration at Airbus. “When Reid Wiseman and his crew throttle up the ESM’s engines to leave Earth orbit, they are also trusting the work of hundreds of engineers across ten European nations to take them to the Moon and bring them home safely.”

Artemis II will introduce new operational capabilities. The Orion Optical Communications System will use laser-based communications to transmit data at speeds of up to 260 megabits per second. The mission will also include a manual piloting demonstration, where astronauts will use hand controllers to operate the spacecraft’s reaction control thrusters during proximity operations in Earth orbit.

Mission planning indicates that Orion will travel between 6,400 and 9,000 kilometres from the Moon’s surface, depending on launch timing. During the flight, the crew is expected to exceed the distance record set during Apollo 13 for the farthest humans have travelled from Earth.

Airbus is continuing production of future service modules. ESM-3 is planned to support rendezvous and docking demonstrations, while ESM-4 is being prepared for Artemis IV. Additional modules are in production in Bremen, Germany, to support future missions under NASA’s lunar exploration programme.