NASA completes assembly of Orion spacecraft for mission to the moon and moves on to testing

Next year NASA plans to send people to the Moon for the first time in half a century. The spacecraft for this is almost assembled.

Here's What We Know

A few days ago, specialists of the space agency installed the Orion ship on the ESM-2 service module, created by Airbus in Europe. With its help, NASA will conduct a series of vacuum and vibration stability tests.

Next year, the space agency will finish outfitting the ship and install it on a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Closer to the launch date, Orion will be equipped with solar panels and emergency systems.

Orion and crew will travel to the Moon in late 2024 as part of the Artemis II mission. The spacecraft will carry Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman from NASA and Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency.

The moon landing will take place as part of the Artemis III mission, which will be realised in 2025 or 2026. During the second mission, the Orion spacecraft will make a spin around the natural satellite and return back to Earth.

Source: NASA