NASA Signs Agreement for European-Provided Orion Service Module
NASA has signed an agreement for the European Space Agency (ESA) to provide a service module for the Orion spacecraft’s Exploration Mission-1 in 2017. The announcement was made on Jan. 16 during a news briefing at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. When Orion blasts off atop a Space Launch System rocket in 2017, attached will be the ESA-provided service module — the powerhouse that fuels and propels the Orion spacecraft. Exploration Mission-1 in 2017 will be the first mission to incorporate both the Orion vehicle and NASA’s new Space Launch System. It will follow the upcoming Exploration Flight Test-1 in 2014, in which an uncrewed Orion will launch atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket and fly to an altitude of 3,600 miles above Earth’s surface, farther than a human spacecraft has gone in 40 years.
nice insider 😉
This is a good thing. ISS has been and is a success story of international cooperation and I wish the Russians, Japanese ans even the Chinese could join in the effort to get humans to Mars.
As long as they use the discordian calendar, everything will be fine.
SCNR 🙂
Let's face: NASA and ESA and ROSKOSMOS can maintain a permanently occupied human habitat in LEO, they have the technology to launch people to the Moon and to L1, but they are powerless when American nationalist hill billies abuse the English language to vent their tortured inner life with YouTube comments.
Thomas Reiter is one of the best astronauts!
The NASA put the ATV on the Orion capulare. The ATV is a space ferry for the ISS, with prolusion that can move the station on higher orbits and can mavuer the ISS. The TAV is like a modul of the ISS had has lifesupport and stuff. Its much more the Sojus or Dragon. NASA must dock then together and open the airlock. oki, a bit more is to do but NASA will do the first unmanned flight in 2014 to the moon.
There's been a lot negative thoughts about this cooperation floating the net. So to clearify I'll summerize the reasons, (dis-/) advantages.
Reason: ESA was going to end ATV missions after the 5th ATV (and prolonging ATV missions already) because they want to do something new, however for the extended use of the ISS a new barter with NASA was needed. ESA thought of creating it's own manned vehicle or some sort of space debris cleaner. NASA didn't wan't that and proposed (they did) the Orion SM.