Orion spacecraft
Orion spacecraft for Artemis I prepared for thermal test at Nasa Plum Broke. Credit: Airbus S.A.S.

The Orion spacecraft for Nasa’s Artemis I mission has completed testing at a facility in Ohio, US, and will be transported back to the Kennedy Space Center for further testing.

Featuring the crew module and European-built service module, the spacecraft has undergone more than three months of testing at Nasa’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio.

During tests, which were carried out in two phases, the spacecraft was subjected to the extreme temperatures and electromagnetic environment it will experience during its voyage to the Moon and back to Earth.

Orion will now be returned to the Kennedy Space Center to undergo further testing and prepare it for integration with the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

The spacecraft is an important component of Artemis I, an uncrewed test flight around the Moon that will land the first woman and next man on the lunar surface by 2024.

The system-level testing included the European Service Module (ESM) built by Airbus under a European Space Agency (ESA) contract.

Commenting on the successful testing, Airbus head of space exploration Andreas Hammer said: “Today marked an important milestone for the Artemis I mission to the Moon. We proved to our customers ESA and Nasa that the European Service Module, designed and built by our engineers in Bremen – supported by companies in ten European countries – meets the requirements to withstand the harsh conditions in space.

“The Artemis programme will land the first woman and next man on the Moon and bring them back safely to Earth, we are proud to contribute to this endeavour with all our know-how, expertise and passion.”

Formerly Exploration Mission-1, Artemis I will be the first integrated test of Nasa’s deep space exploration systems. During the mission, Orion will travel 280,000 miles from Earth and venture thousands of miles beyond the Moon during an approximately three-week mission.