In the presence of one of the four Artemis astronauts that will rely on the European Service Module-2 for water, air, electricity, propulsion and temperature control on their two-week voyage around our Moon, ESA’s European Service Module production manager Anthony Thirkettle and NASA’s Orion programme manager Howard Hu signed the papers for the handover of the hardware at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.

The European Service Module-2 will power the Orion spacecraft on the Artemis II mission that will see NASA astronauts commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen complete flyby of the Moon and return to Earth.

The crew will fly Orion to 8889 km beyond the Moon before completing a lunar flyby and returning to Earth. The mission will take a minimum of eight days and will collect valuable flight test data, in the first time for over 50 years that humans have voyaged to our natural satellite.