The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced the completion of the assembly of the Orion spacecraft’s service module, which will be used in the Artemis III mission. It will soon be transported to the United States and placed at NASA’s disposal.
Orion Service Module Design
The Orion service module was built by Airbus Defence & Space and based on the European ATV cargo spacecraft used to supply the ISS between 2008 and 2015. It carries all the necessary air and water for the crew, as well as batteries and four solar panels designed to generate electricity. It is 4 m long, 4.1 m in diameter (19 m — including the solar panels), and has a mass of about 15.4 tons when fueled, of which 8.6 tons is fuel. The total length of the module’s wiring is 11 km.
The basis for the spacecraft’s propulsion system is the AJ10-190 engine previously used in the U.S. shuttle’s orbital maneuvering system. It can provide Δv up to 1800 m/s. The module is also equipped with 8 Aerojet R-4D-11 auxiliary engines and 24 small orientation system engines.
Artemis III Mission
The assembled Orion service module will be transported to Kennedy Space Center by the Canopee spacecraft. There it will be connected to the crew capsule adapter and then to the capsule itself. NASA engineers will then begin testing the craft to make sure it can withstand interplanetary flight.
The Artemis III mission, which will involve an ESA-transferred service module, is supposed to be the return of humans to the Moon. The mission plan is as follows. Orion with four astronauts will be launched by SLS rocket to the Moon. It will dock with Starship HLS in a selenocentric orbit. The two astronauts will board it and then land on the South Pole of the Moon, where they will stay for about a week. After that, the astronauts will take off, move back aboard Orion and then return to Earth.
For now, the Artemis III mission is formally scheduled to launch in September 2026. But, according to most experts, NASA is unlikely to be able to keep this schedule and the flight date will still change.
According to ESA
