New hardware for future Artemis missions has arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center this week, including its European-built service module for NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
The module, assembled by Airbus with components from ten European countries and the US, was transported aboard the Canopée cargo ship from Germany. It will provide propulsion, thermal control, electrical power, and water and oxygen for Artemis crews.
Separately, NASA’s Pegasus barge, pulled into Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39B Turn Basin on September 5, having shipped multi-mission hardware for the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket; the Artemis II launch vehicle stage adapter; the “boat-tail” of the core stage for Artemis II; the core stage engine section for Artemis IV; and ground support equipment needed to move and assemble the large components, from US production sites.
“Seeing multi-mission hardware arrive at the same time demonstrates the progress we are making on our Artemis missions,” said NASA’s Amit Kshatriya.
With the Artemis II Orion crew and service modules stacked together and undergoing testing and engineers outfitting the Artemis III and IV crew modules, engineers soon will connect the newly arrived European Service Module to the crew module adapter, which houses electronic equipment for communications, power, and control, and includes an umbilical connector that bridges the electrical, data, and fluid systems between the crew and service modules.
The SLS rocket’s cone-shaped launch vehicle stage adapter connects the core stage to the upper stage and protects the rocket’s flight computers, avionics, and electrical devices in the upper stage system during launch and ascent. The adapter will be taken to Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building in preparation for Artemis II rocket stacking operations.
The boat-tail, which will be used during the assembly of the SLS core stage for Artemis III, is a fairing-like structure that protects the bottom end of the core stage and RS-25 engines. This hardware, picked up at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, will join the Artemis III core stage engine section housed in the spaceport’s Space Systems Processing Facility.
The Artemis IV SLS core stage engine section arrived from NASA Michoud and also will transfer to the center’s processing facility ahead of final assembly.
