Newly ordered Artemis II spacecraft will reuse avionics from Artemis I crew module
NewsOctober 21, 2022
DENVER, Colo. Lockheed Martin is under contract with NASA to deliver three Orion spacecraft for the NASA Artemis VI-VIII missions; the new contracts continue the delivery of exploration vehicles to the space agency to carry astronauts around the moon and further into deep space supporting the Artemis program.
Lockheed Martin has acted as prime contractor to NASA for the Orion program and has delivered two Orion vehicles -- EFT-1, which flew in 2014, and Artemis I, which is set for a November 2022 launch to the Moon -- and is currently building vehicles for the Artemis II-V missions.
Tonya Ladwig, Orion vice president and program manager at Lockheed Martin Space, details that the company and agency are finding "substantial" cost savings from Artemis III through Artemis VIII by extensive structure and system reuse and incorporating advanced digital design and manufacturing processes. Moreover, Ladwig states, the Artemis II vehicle will reuse select avionics from the Artemis I crew module; this practice will continue to dramatically increase, she says, to the point where the Artemis III pressure vessel capsule will be entirely refurbished for the Artemis VI mission.
