European eyes on Artemis

Written by Copernical Team Tuesday, 31 March 2026 07:00

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ESA engineer Luca Fossati in Orion's Mission Evaluation Room in an Artemis II simulation

When the four astronauts of Artemis II lift off to travel towards the Moon for the first time in over 50 years, Europe will be travelling with them – not only through the European Service Module that powers their spacecraft, but also through teams of engineers and medical specialists monitoring every move from Earth.

From ESA centres in the Netherlands and Germany to NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston, European experts will follow the mission around the clock, analysing data, anticipating risks and ensuring that both the crew and their spacecraft remain safe throughout the journey.

Houston – Mission Evaluation Room

Just next door to the historic Apollo flight control room at NASA's Johnson Space Center sits the Mission Evaluation Room (MER). Here, over 200 specialists from NASA, ESA, Airbus and Lockheed Martin will analyse Orion's performance in detail and advise flight controllers in real time.

European engineers monitor pressures, temperatures, voltages, fuel levels and more from their module, particularly during dynamic phases of the mission such as engine burns. While flight controllers operate the spacecraft, the MER team know the spacecraft inside-out and provide deep subsystem knowledge and long-term analysis.

“Our job in MER is not only to monitor but also to anticipate,” says Luca Fossati, ESM mission and flight operations system engineer at ESA. “If we see something that isn’t behaving exactly as it should – even if it's not yet an anomaly – we try to prevent it. Our goal is to look ahead and avoid problems before they happen.”

Also in Houston, representatives from ESA's Space Medicine Team will observe mission operations alongside international partners from NASA, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). From a dedicated observation room with access to real-time data and communications, they will follow medical activities, wearable systems such as EveryWear, and decision-making processes, strengthening coordination with ESA's European Astronaut Centre and advancing Europe's deep-space medical operations expertise.