This week, NASA is prepared to send four astronauts on a nine-day trip around the moon and back, and Washington has a hand in the historic adventure.
When the Artemis II launches Wednesday evening, a lot of technology from our state will help it launch—and equally as important—get the astronauts back home.
41 companies had a part to play on this mission, according to Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell’s office.
The Artemis project is our nation’s return to the moon mission, launching a crew further into space than they have ever been before. The whole program has loftier goals than what started the space race nearly 70 years ago.
“Our mission here is to get this technology correct so we can return, land, and build a moon base,” Cantwell said.
Cantwell toured two of the companies, L3Harris and Karman Space & Defense, ahead of the launch.
L3Harris has its fingerprints on the early days of space exploration. Its thrusters were put on the Voyager missions, helping carry the billions of miles into interstellar space, decades past when they were expected to fail. John Schnier, L3Harris’ Vice President of Operations, says that makes it a unique fit for humans’ return to the far side of the moon.
“[Voyager] has a Redmond thruster on it that still works,” Schnieder said. “If you’re going to put humans on that vehicle and you’re going to put them up for an extended period of time in space, Redmond, Washington, and L3Harris is the thruster you want on that vehicle for reliability and safety.”
There are dozens of L3Harris thrusters part of the craft that will go to the moon, around, and come back.
Karman helps create the mechanism that launches the parachute to bring astronauts back to the Earth safely. It’s one of several components the company built for the mission, according to CEO Jon Rambeau.
“It couldn’t be more exciting to be a part of this department,” Rambeau said. “There’s a particular point of pride here for this organization knowing they were able to make a contribution."
Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, astronaut Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen are scheduled to lift off on Wednesday around 3:24 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. You can watch the launch live by clicking here.