The Orion crew module for Artemis II was powered on for the first time May 27 inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This capsule will carry astronauts on a trip around the Moon during the first crewed Artemis mission and helps set the stage for future lunar landing missions through Artemis.
With initial power-on complete, the crew module will undergo a three-part test over several months which includes applying power to each of the eight power and data units that help provide communication between Orion’s flight computers to its components. In addition, teams will begin installing the forward bay cover, which protect the top part of the crew module as the capsule blazes back through Earth’s atmosphere at speeds of up to 25,000 mph at the end of its mission
With Artemis, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon and establish long-term exploration in preparation for missions to Mars. The Space Launch System rocket and Orion, along with the commercial human landing system and the Gateway that will orbit the Moon, are NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration.
Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett