Europe celebrates performance of Orion service module

As the Artemis 1 mission nears its conclusion, European Space Agency and industry officials praised the performance of the Orion spacecraft’s service module, which some see as a step towards a European crewed spacecraft. The Artemis 1 mission is set to conclude Dec. 11 with the reentry and splashdown of the Orion crew capsule, shortly after it separates from the European Service Module. That module provided power, propulsion and other services for the spacecraft since its Nov. 16 launch. “We are coming towards the end of what you might think of as a 100-meter race that’s followed a marathon,” said David Parker, ESA’s director for human and robotic exploration, during a Dec. 9 briefing. “The marathon was the 10 years of effort and preparation needed to build and prepare the first European Service Module for its journey to the moon and back again, and 100-meter race has been that actual mission itself.” During that 100-meter sprint, the service module has not broken stride. “The mission has gone really perfect from our point of view,” said Ralf Zimmermann, head of moon programs and the Orion European Service Module at Airbus, the prime contractor for the module. “We have absolutely flown a perfect mission so far.” There have been minor issues with the module, he noted, “but nothing mission critical.” One persistent issue has been with devices called latching current limiters in one part of the spacecraft’s power system. Those devices, similar to circuit breakers, have opened at least 17 times during the course of the mission without being commanded to do so, NASA officials said at a Dec. 8 briefing, but have not significantly affected spacecraft operations.

A view of the aft section of the European Service Module of the Orion spacecraft taken as the Artemis 1 mission nears its conclusion. Credit: NASA

“It’s not a big deal because they can be recommanded on,” said Philippe Deloo, ESA program manager for the service module. “We don’t have an idea of what is the root cause. We are investigating, looking at all possible options.”

One possibility, he said, is that electromagnetic interference or noise in the power system is causing the latching current limiters to open. Another possibility is they are being affected by transmissions from spacecraft antennas. Engineers are doing as much testing as they can before the end of the mission to identify the cause. “This is going to be a difficult one to troubleshoot.”

Zimmermann emphasized the issue was not serious. “When they open uncommanded, the effect on the mission is not that big,” he said, noting it affects only one of eight power lines on the spacecraft. “It is a glitch, not a mission-critical failure.”

Other parts of the European Service Module have exceeded expectations. The spacecraft is producing more power than expected, yet using less power than planned. Deloo said the reduced power consumption is, in turn, linked to the spacecraft dissipating less heat than expected, meaning it has to use heaters less frequently to maintain its proper temperature. “This is one of the major lessons learned.”

The service module has also produced many of the stunning images and video the mission has returned, thanks to GoPro cameras mounted on the tips of each of the four solar arrays. “We are calling them now four selfie sticks,” quipped Matthias Gronowski, chief engineer for the European Service Module at Airbus.

The Artemis 1 mission, and excellent performance of its service modules, comes as some in Europe advocate for ESA to develop its own human spaceflight capability. Human spaceflight was one of the long-term “inspirator” concepts endorsed by ESA member states a year ago, and remains a topic of debate in Europe.

“We have to see how far politicians are willing to look into this,” ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said in a Dec. 1 speech at a Space Transportation Association luncheon here, noting the topic would come up at a second European “space summit” scheduled for late 2023. “Does Europe want to be more independent, more autonomous in human space transportation?”

“In terms of technical capability, can Europe build a human-rated space vehicle? I don’t doubt it,” Parker said, citing the success not just of the Artemis 1 mission but work on International Space Station modules and elements of the future lunar Gateway. What would be needed, he said, was experience in end-to-end operations of a crew spacecraft and development of safety systems, like a launch abort system, as well as a human-rated launch vehicle.

During the International Astronautical Congress in September, ArianeGroup released a concept for a vehicle called Smart Upper Stage for Innovative Exploration (SUSIE). The vehicle is designed to be a new, reusable upper stage for the Ariane 6 rocket, but could be used as a cargo and crew transportation vehicle. Morena Bernardini, head of strategy and innovation at ArianeGroup, said in an interview at the conference that a cargo version of SUSIE could be ready as soon as 2030 followed by a crewed version “immediately after.”

At the briefing, Zimmerman suggested Airbus was more interested in working with others, along the lines of the existing partnership on Orion, than developing a European crewed vehicle. “We need to unite forces and share the costs,” he said, noting he was offering his personal opinion. “This is, to me, much more important than saying its Germany, France, England or Europe in total against the Americans.”

Parker said the success of the service module shows ESA is ready for the next phases of Artemis. “We learned that we can send a crew-rated capsule to the moon and back again on its first flight, and that means it gives us a lot of confidence to go forward in the next steps in Artemis.”

ESA has a contract with Airbus to produce service modules through Artemis 6, at a total value of a little more than two billion euros. ESA’s member states approved plans to produce three more service modules at November’s ministerial meeting, and Parker said the agency will get those under contract some time in 2023.

The Artemis 1 service module will end its mission about 40 minutes before splashdown when it separates from the crew capsule shortly before reentry. The service module will burn up in the atmosphere, with any surviving pieces falling into the Pacific Ocean west of Peru.

“It’s a little sad, but we’ve accomplished the mission,” Zimmerman said of the impending demise of the service module. “We are proud of all that has happened.”

“You cannot be sad when you accomplish your mission,” Deloo said. “Everything has a life. The end of the life is part of the life. As long as the life has been successful, this is a great success. So, I’m happy about it.”

SLS launches Artemis 1 mission

After years of delays, NASA’s Space Launch System lifted off for the first time Nov. 16, sending an uncrewed Orion spacecraft on a shakedown cruise around the moon. The SLS lifted off from Launch Complex 39B here at 1:47 a.m. Eastern. The rocket’s upper stage, called the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), separated from the core stage eight and a half minutes after liftoff. The Orion spacecraft separated from the ICPS nearly two hours after liftoff, after the stage completed a translunar injection burn. “We have a priority-one mission in play right now,” said Mike Sarafin, NASA Artemis 1 mission manager, at a post-launch briefing. He was referring to the mission’s top priority to have the Orion capsule reenter at lunar velocities at the end of the mission, something enabled by the successful launch. “We had the rocket do its job and deliver the spacecraft to the point of translunar injection.” The Orion spacecraft was “performing exactly as we intended,” he said, with the exception of a few “funnies” or minor issues. That included a glitch with a spacecraft star tracker and microswitches in a solar array that did not immediately indicate it latched into place as expected when the array deployed, but later did so. The launch took place more than 40 minutes into a two-hour window after overcoming two issues during the countdown. A little more than three hours before the opening of the launch window, NASA reported a leak in a valve in ground equipment used to replenish the core stage’s liquid hydrogen tank. The launch director dispatched a small “red crew” to the pad to tighten bolts in the valve, fixing the leak.

NASA's Space Launch System lifts off for the first time Nov. 16 on the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission. Credit: Jordan Sirokie

“Our most likely case here was that we just had some loose nuts on those valves,” said Mike Bolger, Exploration Ground Systems Program manager, at a post-launch briefing. “We sent the team out and they did a terrific job, and we got the issue resolved.”

“It was a low moment when we first saw the leak,” he added, bringing up hydrogen leaks in past launch attempts, “but really a high moment when we recognized we’d solved the problem.”

Around the time the red crew completed its work, the U.S. Space Force, which operates the Eastern Range that includes KSC, said a radar needed to track the launch had malfunctioned, a problem traced to a faulty Ethernet switch. Replacing the switch took more than an hour.

The successful launch came after two scrubbed attempts in late August and early September. The first, Aug. 29, was called off when sensors indicated one of four RS-25 core stage engines had not properly cooled down, a problem later blamed on a faulty sensor. NASA scrubbed the second, Sept. 3, after detecting a hydrogen leak during fueling of the core stage.

NASA replaced damaged seals in the liquid hydrogen line and changed tanking procedures, which it successfully tested Sept. 21. However, Hurricane Ian forced NASA to send the SLS back to the safety of the Vehicle Assembly Building before making another attempt in a launch period that closed in early October.

NASA rolled the SLS back to the pad Nov. 4, then had to wait as Hurricane Nicole passed through Nov. 10. The storm caused “very minor” damage that mission managers concluded either could be repaired or was not a constraint to launch.

That damage included a caulk material called RTV that had started to come off the interface between the Orion crew capsule and its launch abort system in the aftermath of the hurricane. Sarafin said imagery showed “a couple indications” that additional material came off during flight, but that engineers were still studying the data to determine what, if anything did come off Orion during ascent.

Those earlier launch scrubs, though, were only minor setbacks for a launch vehicle whose development suffered extensive delays. The 2010 NASA Authorization Act, which instructed NASA to develop SLS, called for the vehicle to be ready by the end of 2016. Various technical issues, primarily with the rocket’s core stage, steadily pushed back the first flight of the vehicle until now.

The Artemis 1 mission will see the Orion spacecraft, without astronauts on board, go to the moon and enter a distant retrograde orbit there. Orion will remain in that orbit for five days, reaching a maximum distance from Earth of 480,500 kilometers. It will then depart the orbit and return to Earth, splashing down off the coast of San Diego, California, at 12:40 p.m. Eastern Dec. 11.

The 25-day mission is considered a “short-class” mission by NASA, versus missions of up to 42 days that Orion would have flown in two earlier launch attempts. The shorter mission will still achieve all the test objectives, but in a more compressed timeframe.

“We did proofs of concept early on to demonstrate that you can fit all the objects the program has decided they want us to accomplish into the shortest class mission,” said Emily Nelson, NASA chief flight director, in a Nov. 14 interview. “But, it’s much more of a Tetris puzzle to make sure all of those things fit in.”

Those plans are revised for each launch opportunity. “Each different launch opportunity is a new challenge in terms of when is the spacecraft in the right place to accomplish those different mission objectives,” she said.

Artemis 1 is designed to test the Orion spacecraft in cislunar space, including testing the spacecraft’s heat shield when reentering at lunar return velocities. It will be followed by Artemis 2, the first crewed Orion mission, no earlier than 2024.

SLS returns to the pad for next Artemis launch attempt

The Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft rolled back out to the launch pad Nov. 4 as the agency prepares for the third attempt to launch the vehicle on Artemis 1 mission later this month. SLS and Orion, on its mobile launch platform, arrived at Launch Complex 39B at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Nov. 4, a little more than nine hours after emerging from the Vehicle Assembly Building. The rollout was the fourth for the vehicle since March. The rollout supports NASA’s plans to conduct the next Artemis 1 launch attempt Nov. 14, with liftoff scheduled at 12:07 a.m. Eastern at the beginning of a 69-minute launch window. Two backup windows are reserved for Nov. 16 and Nov. 19. In a Nov, 3 call with reporters, Jim Free, associate administrator for exploration systems development, said managers gave the go-ahead for the rollout after reviewing weather forecasts that show the risk of a tropical storm system forming and heading towards Florida early next week. “Our engineering team thought it was an OK risk to go out tonight,” he said. Mark Burger, launch weather officer with the U.S. Space Force’s Space Launch Delta 45, said there is only a 30% chance of the system becoming a named storm, with peak wind gusts not expected to exceed 74 kilometers per hour. “Those are well within our constraints for riding out” the storm at the pad, he said. “We’ll have impacts from that in terms of the wind, but we’re not looking at any likelihood at this point of see a strong system emerge out of this.” SLS and Orion had been in the VAB since late September, when NASA rolled back to protect the vehicle from Hurricane Ian. Before the storm forced the rollback, agency officials felt they had resolved hydrogen leak problems that scrubbed the previous launch attempt Sept. 3.

The Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft emerge from the Vehicle Assembly Building to head to Launch Complex 39B for a Nov. 14 launch. Credit: Jordan Sirokie

The investigation into that leak has not turned up a single clear cause. “There’s not really a smoking gun, per se,” said Cliff Lanham, senior vehicle operations manager in NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems program. “We feel pretty confident that, through the loading procedures and controlling the pressures, we understand it much better now.”

“Our teams have continued to grow and learn about the vehicle, and we’re confident,” said Free, who added he felt they had three good opportunities to launch. “But, it’s a flight test.”

“What we’ve learned in every wet dress [rehearsal], our two launch attempts and our tanking test help build our confidence,” he said. “I don’t think we would roll out if we didn’t feel confident.”

If the vehicle does not launch by Nov. 19, there is a fourth possible launch window on Nov. 25. Beyond that, Free said NASA would likely leave the vehicle on the pad and wait until the next launch period opens in December, which would require getting waivers from the Eastern Range for the SLS flight termination system, much like what happened in September.

December also marks the deadline for the lifetime of the two solid rocket boosters. Lanham said that the boosters, which originally had a 12-month life when they were stacked in early 2021, have been certified through Dec. 9 for one booster and Dec. 14 for the other. If the vehicle doesn’t launch by then, Free said, they would do another “analysis cycle” on the boosters to see if their lives can be further extended.

Artemis 1, ispace lander set November launch dates

NASA’s Artemis 1 mission and a Japanese lander are set to launch to the moon from Florida within days of each other in November. NASA announced Oct. 12 that it has scheduled the launch of the Artemis 1 mission for Nov. 14 from the Kennedy Space Center. The launch would take place during a 69-minute window that opens at 12:07 a.m. Eastern. Backup launch windows are available Nov. 16 at 1:04 a.m. Eastern and Nov. 19 at 1:45 a.m. Eastern, each two hours long. The agency said that inspections of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft after it rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building Sept. 27 found “minimal work” needed to prepare them for another launch attempt. That work includes repairing minor damage to the rocket’s thermal protection system from earlier launch attempts and tests, as well as replacing or recharging batteries for the rocket’s flight termination system. NASA expects to have the vehicle ready to roll back to Launch Complex 39B as soon as Nov. 4. NASA rolled the rocket back to the VAB to protect it from Hurricane Ian as the storm cut across Florida. That ruled out launch opportunities in late September and early October, and the rollback meant NASA could not try again during a launch period open in the latter half of October. The new launch opportunities are near the start of the following launch period. NASA is pressing ahead with those opportunities despite them being at night. Agency officials earlier suggested they preferred to launch during the day for improved tracking of the SLS on its inaugural flight, but that would have required waiting until at least Nov. 22, in the latter half of the launch period.

The HAKUTO-R M1 lander, built by ispace, undergoes final preparations in Germany for shipment to Cape Canaveral for a Falcon 9 launch Nov. 9-15. Credit: ispace

The new launch date for Artemis 1 means it is now scheduled for launch within days of a commercial lunar lander mission. Japanese company ispace announced Oct. 12 that it plans to launch its first HAKUTO-R lander on a Falcon 9 between Nov. 9 and 15 from Cape Canaveral.

The M1 lander completed testing last month at a facility in Germany and it being prepared for shipment to the launch site. The lander is carrying a variety of payloads, including a small lunar rover called Rashid developed by the United Arab Emirates.

“For me this is a milestone on the road to realizing our vision, but I am already proud of our results,” Takeshi Hakamada, chief executive of ispace, said in a statement. “I look forward to watching the launch alongside all of our employees and those who have supported us.”

That schedule puts ispace ahead of two American companies also preparing lunar landers for launch. Both Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines had planned to launch their first lander missions before the end of the year, carrying payloads that included those provided by NASA though its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. However, Intuitive Machines said over the summer that the Falcon 9 launch of its IM-1 mission would slip to early 2023.

Astrobotic, flying on the inaugural mission of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur, had been holding a 2022 launch until Oct. 10, when ULA announced it was delaying the launch to the first quarter of 2023 to give Astrobotic more time to complete its lander. It was not clear that Vulcan itself would be ready to launch this year because of delays in the delivery of the BE-4 engines that power its first stage.

In an Oct. 10 statement, John Thornton, chief executive of Astrobotic, said his company would release more details about its launch plans in the near future, but noted the lander has recently returned to the company’s Pittsburgh headquarters after completing pressure testing of its propulsion system.

“We are now proceeding with final spacecraft assembly which includes installation of the solar panel along with avionics, sensors, communications equipment and payloads, which are already tested and integrated with their corresponding decks,” he said. “As Peregrine begins its journey to the Moon in early 2023, it will be an incredible accomplishment for Astrobotic, the city of Pittsburgh, and the space industry as a whole.”

Tokyo-based ispace is not directly a part of the CLPS program. However, its U.S. office is part of a team led by Draper that won a CLPS award in July for a lander mission to the far side of the moon scheduled for launch in 2025.