page_title: Orion (spacecraft)
section_title: European Service Module (ESM)
hierarchical_section_title: Orion (spacecraft) / Spacecraft description / European Service Module (ESM)
caption_attribution_description: English: This artist's concept of the Orion Service Module was introduced today (16 January 2013). When the Orion spacecraft blasts off atop NASA’s Space Launch System rocket in 2017, attached will be the ESA-provided service module – the powerhouse that fuels and propels the Orion spacecraft. Orion will be the most advanced spacecraft ever designed and carry astronauts farther into space than ever before. It will sustain astronauts during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space and emergency abort capability. Orion will be launched by NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), a heavy-lift rocket that will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS will enable new missions of exploration and expand human presence across the solar system. The service module of the Orion spacecraft will provide support to the crew module from launch through separation prior to atmospheric re-entry.
context_page_description: Orion is a class of partially reusable space capsules to be used in NASA's human spaceflight programs. The spacecraft consists of a Crew Module manufactured by Lockheed Martin and the European Service Module manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space. Capable of supporting a crew of six beyond low Earth orbit, Orion can last up to 21 days undocked and up to six months docked. It is equipped with solar panels, an automated docking system, and glass cockpit interfaces modeled after those used in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. A single AJ10 engine provides the spacecraft's primary propulsion, while eight R-4D-11 engines, and six pods of custom reaction control system engines developed by Airbus, provide the spacecraft's secondary propulsion. Although compatible with other launch vehicles, Orion is primarily designed to launch atop a Space Launch System rocket, with a tower launch escape system.
  Orion was originally conceived by Lockheed Martin as a proposal for the Crew Exploration Vehicle to be used in NASA's Constellation program. Lockheed Martin's proposal defeated a competing proposal by Northrop Grumman, and was selected by NASA in 2006 to be the CEV.
context_section_description: In May 2011 the ESA director general announced a possible collaboration with NASA to work on a successor to the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). On June 21, 2012, Airbus Defence and Space announced that they had been awarded two separate studies, each worth €6.5 million, to evaluate the possibilities of using technology and experience gained from ATV and Columbus related work for future missions. The first looked into the possible construction of a service module which would be used in tandem with the Orion CM. The second examined the possible production of a versatile multi purpose orbital vehicle.
  On November 21, 2012, the ESA decided to develop an ATV-derived service module for Orion. The service module is being manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space in Bremen, Germany. NASA announced on January 16, 2013, that the ESA service module will first fly on Artemis 1, the debut launch of the Space Launch System.
  Testing of the European service module began in February 2016, at the Space Power Facility.
  On February 16, 2017, a €200m contract was signed between Airbus and the European Space Agency for the production of a second European service module for use on the first crewed Orion flight, Artemis 2.
  On 26 October 2018 the first unit for Artemis 1 was assembled in full at Airbus Defence and Space's factory in Bremen.
caption: Artist's concept of an Orion spacecraft including the European Service Module with Interim Cryogenic Upper Stage attached at the back
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