The Orion vehicle that will bring astronauts around the Moon and back for the first time in over 50 years was recently tested in a refurbished altitude chamber used during the Apollo era.

Engineers tested Orion in a near-vacuum environment designed to simulate the space conditions the vehicle will travel through during its mission towards the Moon. Teams emptied the altitude chamber of air, a process taking up to a day, to create a very low-pressure environment over 2000 times lower and more vacuum-like than inside your vacuum cleaner. Orion remained in the altitude chamber’s low-pressure environment for around a week, with engineering teams monitoring the spacecraft’s systems and collecting data to qualify Orion for safely flying the Artemis II crew through the harsh environment of space.

The next step for Orion will take place after the summer: the installation of its four, seven-metre long solar arrays that the European Service Module (ESM) will use to power the vehicle and its crew of four towards the Moon and back during the Artemis II mission.

Rachid Amekrane, Project Manager for Orion ESM at Airbus, stands next to the Orion spacecraft inside the altitude chamber at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Next to his hand are four nozzles; these are some of the reaction control system engines of the ESM. In total, there are 33 engines on the ESM: 24 reaction control system engines, eight auxiliary thrusters and a Shuttle-era main engine.