Delivery of European service cabins for U.S. flights around the moon. On June 14, 2023, ESA officially handed over the European service module for the Artemis II mission to NASA. Aar

Delivery of European service cabins for U.S. flights around the moon.

On June 14, 2023, ESA officially handed over the European service module for the Artemis II mission to NASA. The Artemis II mission will have 4 astronauts flying around the moon, NASA astronaut commander Reed Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission expert Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will fly around the moon and return to Earth aboard the Orion spacecraft.

The Artemis II mission will take eight days to collect valuable manned flight data around the moon, the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon in 50 years after the Apollo program. In the Apollo program, the first manned flight around the moon was the Apollo 8 mission in October 1969. The European Service Module-2, or ESM-2 for short, has 33 engines that provide propulsion and attitude control for the spacecraft's orbit change. ESM-2 also has 11 kilometers of electrical wiring, four fuel tanks and two pressure tanks that provide water, air and electricity to the spacecraft, allowing astronauts to survive in space while away from Earth.

ESM-2 will be combined with the Orion spacecraft for further testing later this year. The entire spacecraft complex will then be taken to the launch pad for refueling and integrated testing with NASA's SLS giant lunar landing rocket. Artemis II is scheduled to launch next year.

Of course, the probability of postponing to 2025 is not small.

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