NASA's trio of spacecraft will carry humans to the Moon

On July 14, US defense giant Lockheed Martin revealed images of three Orion spacecraft used for the Artemis II, III, and IV lunar missions.

The Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II, III, and IV lunar missions (from left to right) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo: NASA/Marie Reed

"The future of the Orion spacecraft looks very bright. The crew modules for the Artemis II, Artemis III, and Artemis IV missions are undergoing various stages of production at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in preparation for returning astronauts to the Moon," Lockheed Martin wrote in a Twitter post on July 14, accompanied by a photo of the three Orion spacecraft. The trio is being built under Lockheed Martin's management.

For the Artemis II mission, the Orion spacecraft is scheduled to launch in November 2024 with a crew of four: astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch (NASA), and astronaut Jeremy Hansen (Canadian Space Agency). Meanwhile, information about the participants for the Artemis III and IV missions has not yet been revealed. Artemis III is planned for launch in 2025 or 2026, depending on the readiness of the Starship launch system developed by SpaceX. Artemis IV will follow later, towards the end of the decade.

Lockheed Martin has signed contracts to supply Orion spacecraft for several future Artemis lunar missions. The order for spacecraft for the Artemis III-V missions is worth $2.7 billion, while for the Artemis VI-VIII missions it is worth $1.9 billion. Lockheed Martin stated that the batch manufacturing process helps the company save costs due to production efficiency.

The new image doesn't show the Orion spacecraft for Artemis I, the vehicle that made an uncrewed flight to lunar orbit late last year. The photo also doesn't show the first Orion spacecraft ever produced, which orbited Earth in 2014 on a test flight.

NASA has signed the Artemis Accords with 26 countries to establish rules for peaceful lunar exploration. The European and Canadian space agencies have both committed to providing hardware for Artemis and Gateway, the lunar orbiter planned for launch this decade.

Thu Thao (According to Space )

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