Artemis III: a historic engine

Later this summer, ESA’s third European Service Module will leave the integration halls of Airbus Space in Bremen, Germany, and travel to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to be connected to the crew module in preparation for the Artemis III launch to the Moon. Its main engine was installed earlier this year, and it is no stranger to space having already nine missions under its belt powering Space Shuttle orbiters. 

Once the Orion spacecraft has been launched into space by NASA’s super-heavy Space Launch System rocket, the European Service Module will propel it in space using its eight auxiliary thrusters and main engine supported by the 24 reaction control system engines to keep it on attitude.  

The first six European Service Modules use Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines as their main engine. These OMS engines are repurposed from Space Shuttle orbiters. During Space Shuttle flights, each orbiter used two OMS engines to propel itself in space and return to Earth. The third European Service Module’s OMS engine has already flown on nine different Space Shuttle missions from 1985 to 2011 and it will now return to space with the Artemis III mission, going further than it ever has before. 

Space Shuttle engines lighting up during the STS-130 mission in 2010. The OMS engines are the two smaller ones above the larger engines. Credit: NASA

History 

The engine flew twice with the Challenger orbiter in April and July of 1985 in missions where experiments were performed in ESA’s Spacelab module. The engine’s third mission was 61-C in 1986 with the Columbia orbiter, a mission in which two future NASA administrators took part: Bill Nelson and Charles Bolden. 

NASA Administrator Senator Bill Nelson during the 61-C Space Shuttle mission. Credit: NASA

The next time this engine flew was 20 years later. From 2007 to 2011, it powered the Endeavour orbiter in six flights that helped to assemble the International Space Station. ESA astronauts were present on two of these missions: Leopold Eyharts on STS-123 in 2007 which also delivered the first module of the Japanese space laboratory Kibo, and Roberto Vittori on STS-134 in 2011 which was the last spaceflight of the Endeavour orbiter and the penultimate Space Shuttle programme flight. 

ESA astronaut Leopold Eyharts during the STS-122 mission. Credit: NASA

ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori during the STS-134 mission. Credit: NASA

The table below shows the complete list of the engine’s missions: 

Top view of the Space Shuttle orbiter Endeavour during the STS-123 mission in 2008. Credit: NASA

Another mission, STS-130, brought two modules of the International Space Station: Tranquility, also known as Node 3, and the Cupola. Both modules were provided by ESA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and built by what is now Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy, in the same manufacturing halls that build the backbone structure of the European Service Modules today.  

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoferetti in the European-built Cupola on the International Space Station during her Minerva mission. Credit: ESA/NASA

Future

Installation of the third European Service Module’s main engine at Airbus Space in Bremen, Germany. Credit: Airbus

This legendary engine is now installed in the third European Service Module, which will soon be leaving Europe for the United States, its last stop before going further than it ever has before: bringing humankind back to the Moon. 

ESA’s European Service Module propelling NASA’s Orion spacecraft during Artemis I. Credit: NASA