March 2021
Building SLS - a contractual odyssey
... (SLS), designed for a new era of human exploration beyond Earth orbit. Equipped to launch crews of up to four in NASA’s Orion spacecraft, its first significant test is Artemis, the much-publicised mission to land American astronauts “including the...
August 2016
International cooperation drives Germany’s space ambitions
... the Columbus Laboratory, the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) and the European Service Module for NASA’s Orion spacecraft. More than 40 per cent of European ISS experiments come from German research institutions The 24/7 operation...
February 2020
Europe’s role in space standardisation
... to the Moon; the module will deliver propulsion and life support for four astronauts aboard the Orion crew module. We are also working with JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency, and last year launched...
December 2014
Asteroid Redirect Mission: preparing for Mars in deep space
... toward the challenging goal of a crewed mission to Mars. In an early use of NASA’s next-generation human spaceflight vehicles, Orion and Space Launch System (SLS), our astronauts will travel to the redirected asteroid in the lunar DRO...
October 2015
Earth independence: new definitions of home on Mars missions and beyond
...the proving ground are already in development. In December 2014, the Orion crew vehicle made its first uncrewed test flight. It reached 15...to Mars. In just a few years, SLS will launch Orion on another uncrewed test flight around the Moon, and then ...
January 2023
Private space stations and NASA’s effort to re-invent itself
... start of the Obama administration a decade ago, one of the key observations was that the giant size of an Orion capsule that could accommodate up to eight astronauts might be reduced to a four-astronaut configuration. Had this suggestion, outlined...
