The European Service Module Propulsion Qualification Module is being shipped from assembly was completed in January in Stockholm, Sweden, and the model packed up and ready for shipment to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, USA.

The container, a wooden box for lifting gear and an additional equipment box were loaded on the container ship Dornbusch in Södertälje harbour, and will depart for Bremerhaven, Germany later today. All three items were hoisted into the ship below the deck hatches. The cargo will go to Houston, USA, via the container ship St. Louis from Bremerhaven, Germany.

From Houston it will continue to the White Sands Testing Facility for extensive testing including “hot-firing” where the main engine, auxiliary engines and thrusters will be fired for real in tests ran by Airbus DS with NASA and ESA.