What is Orion?
Orion is NASA’s spacecraft to send humans into space. It is designed to send astronauts farther into space than ever before, to the Moon and beyond. When they return to Earth, the astronauts will enter our atmosphere at speeds over 32 000 km/h but the capsule will protect them and ensure a bumpy but safe landing.
ESA has designed and is overseeing the development of Orion’s service module, the part of the spacecraft that supplies air, electricity and propulsion. Much like a train engine pulls passenger carriages and supplies power, the European Service Module will take the Orion capsule to its destination and back.
Orion has gone farther than any other crewed spacecraft has before on the Artemis I mission, and European design and technology made that happen. Orion’s service module is based on the proven performance of ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicles that flew to the International Space Station.
Orion is launched by NASA’s Space Launch System. The mega Moon rocket allows Orion to break free of Earth’s gravity and explore our Solar System.
Orion’s first test flight came in December 2014 on a Delta IV Heavy vehicle that put the capsule (without ESA’s module) into a highly elliptical orbit that soon brought it back for splashdown in the Pacific ocean.
