{"id":16790,"date":"2014-12-03T21:39:20","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T13:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/esa-member-states-commit-funding-for-orion-service-module\/"},"modified":"2014-12-03T21:39:20","modified_gmt":"2014-12-03T13:39:20","slug":"esa-member-states-commit-funding-for-orion-service-module","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/esa-member-states-commit-funding-for-orion-service-module\/","title":{"rendered":"ESA member states commit funding for Orion service module"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Artist's
Artist\u2019s concept of an Orion spacecraft with a European-built service module. Credit: ESA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a barebones Orion spacecraft awaits its first liftoff from Cape Canaveral, representatives from European governments agreed Tuesday to pay for the development of a power and propulsion element to take the crew capsule on longer voyages around the moon, to an asteroid, and eventually to Mars.<\/p>\n

The decision by European governments to fund the Orion spacecraft\u2019s service module was the last step required for the European Space Agency to go ahead with final design and construction of the component, which will be fitted with the capsule on its next test flight in 2018.<\/p>\n

NASA and ESA agreed on the service module accord in December 2012, and European engineers are already working on the project.<\/p>\n

But ESA member states had only committed to paying for slightly more than half of the service module\u2019s 450 million euro ($550 million) cost. When government ministers met Tuesday in Luxembourg, a top agenda item was the approval of the final funding installment worth approximately 200 million euros, or about $250 million.<\/p>\n

Officials rubber stamped the funding as part of Europe\u2019s payment for its use of the International Space Station. Although the space station and Orion programs are not directly related, ESA and NASA negotiated a deal for Europe to design and build the crew capsule\u2019s service module in exchange for European access to the orbiting research lab through 2020.<\/p>\n

The \u201cbarter\u201d agreement allows the two space agencies to pay each other without exchanging cash.<\/p>\n

With its design rooted in Europe\u2019s Automated Transfer Vehicle, an unpiloted space station resupply freighter, the service module will debut on the Orion spacecraft\u2019s second space mission scheduled for launch in 2018.<\/p>\n

The capsule will fly without a crew on a mission around the far side of the moon and into a distant lunar retrograde orbit before returning to Earth for splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts first mission will be to go to the moon with the Orion capsule,\u201d said Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA\u2019s director general.<\/p>\n

\"ESA
ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain, flanked by other European government officials, speaks to the media following Tuesday\u2019s budget meeting. Credit: ESA\/S. Corvaja<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The decision by European ministers Tuesday was welcomed on both sides of the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe service module is now in good shape,\u201d said Johann-Dietrich Woerner, chairman of DLR, the German space agency. \u201cWe look forward to the maiden flight of Orion without the service module this week, and then the flight with the European service module around the moon next time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agreement sealed by NASA and ESA calls for Europe to build the bulk of the service module for the 2018 mission, which is called Exploration Mission-1 in NASA\u2019s flight sequence. ESA will also deliver parts for another service module that will fly on the first Orion mission with astronauts on-board in 2021.<\/p>\n

Officials plan to discuss extending the Orion accord, meaning ESA could provide full-up service modules on subsequent Orion missions with crews. European space leaders see the agreement as a foothold in human spaceflight, sensing an opportunity to send European astronauts on missions to the moon or an asteroid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope we can become an international partner (on Orion) who will fly not only with the service module, but also inside the capsule with a European astronaut.\u201d<\/p>\n

ESA signed a $480 million contract with Airbus Defence and Space on Nov. 17 to cover the remaining development and construction tasks for the first Orion service module, which will be built at an Airbus plant in Bremen, Germany, and delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in January 2017, according to Mark Geyer, NASA\u2019s Orion program manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important for the United States to lead in space exploration, but leading doesn\u2019t mean you go by yourself,\u201d Geyer said. \u201cI think the space station is an example of that \u2026 and Orion is the beginning of that for exploration in that ESA is providing key parts of the service module for our next flight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geyer said the signing of a contract with favorable terms, which occurred before ESA could confirm it had the money for the service module, was a sign ESA was committed to the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a key piece the ministers needed to see \u2014 that ESA had a fixed-price deal with Airbus,\u201d Geyer told Spaceflight Now. \u201cThat was the one last question, but we all thought it would be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The European-built service module will provide propulsion, electrical power, thermal control and major components for Orion\u2019s life support system.<\/p>\n

NASA will supply a rocket engine taken from the space shuttle for attachment on the back end of the Orion service module, while ESA is in charge of building the craft\u2019s primary structure, propellant tanks and four solar panels arranged in an \u201cX-wing\u201d configuration like the power-generating solar arrays on Europe\u2019s ATV cargo craft.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re doing a great job,\u201d Geyer said. \u201cThey\u2019re working hard on their structural test article, which is the next step in their program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artist\u2019s concept of an Orion spacecraft with a European-built service module. Credit: ESA As a barebones Orion spacecraft awaits its first liftoff from Cape Canaveral, representatives from European governments agreed Tuesday to pay for the development of a power and propulsion element to take the crew capsule on longer voyages around the moon, to an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4201,3688,4229,831,640,3334],"class_list":["post-16790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-delta-369","tag-eft-1","tag-esa-ministerial-2014","tag-european-space-agency","tag-orion","tag-orion-service-module"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16790"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}