{"id":17098,"date":"2025-08-11T23:05:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T15:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-takes-a-trip-to-seattle-area-to-thank-suppliers-for-work-on-the-next-moonshot\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T23:05:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T15:05:37","slug":"nasa-takes-a-trip-to-seattle-area-to-thank-suppliers-for-work-on-the-next-moonshot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-takes-a-trip-to-seattle-area-to-thank-suppliers-for-work-on-the-next-moonshot\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA takes a trip to Seattle area to thank suppliers for work on the next moonshot"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg faces the TV cameras at L3Harris\u2019 Aerojet Rocketdyne facility in Redmond, Wash. An R-4D-11 thruster and a decontamination oven are off to his left. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

REDMOND, Wash. \u2014 The first crewed flight around the moon in more than 50 years is still months away, but NASA is already saying thank you to L3Harris Technologies\u2019 Aerojet Rocketdyne segment and other suppliers who are making the trip possible.<\/p>\n

Today, NASA\u2019s road trip brought agency officials \u2014 plus astronaut Woody Hoburg \u2014 to the L3Harris facility in Redmond, which has contributed propulsion systems to NASA missions ranging from space shuttle flights to the Voyager probes\u2019 journeys to the edge of the solar system.<\/p>\n

Now NASA is getting ready to launch four astronauts on a round-the-moon mission known as Artemis 2, powered in part by hardware built in Redmond. Hoburg, who spent six months on the International Space Station in 2023 and is awaiting his next crew assignment, told an audience of about 200 L3Harris employees and VIPs that the Artemis 2 crew is well aware of the company\u2019s contribution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re depending on you, and they know they can count on you,\u201d he said. \u201cThank you for all the hard work you\u2019re doing to make this amazing adventure possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Artemis 2 mission is currently targeted for launch next April, or perhaps even earlier, said Howard Hu, NASA\u2019s program manager for the Orion crew vehicle. The mission after that, Artemis 3, is due to lift off no earlier than mid-2027 with the goal of landing astronauts on the lunar surface for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.<\/p>\n

L3Harris\u2019 Aerojet Redmond team delivered the hardware for those two Artemis missions \u2014 including auxiliary engines for Orion\u2019s European-built service module \u2014 years ago. Now the team is working on thrusters for missions as far out as Artemis 8, which is scheduled to go the moon no earlier than 2033.<\/p>\n

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NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg uses a basketball and a tennis ball to provide a sense of the relative sizes of Earth and the moon during a thank-you ceremony for L3Harris employees in Redmond, Wash. (L3Harris Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the advent of the Trump administration and new management at NASA, the long-term plan for crewed moon missions has been in flux. <\/p>\n

The White House initially sought to cancel the Space Launch System and Orion programs after Artemis 3, and instead focus on a commercial alternative for Mars missions, such as SpaceX\u2019s Starship launch system. But Congress voted to stay the course \u2014 and Don Mahr, director of program management at L3Harris\u2019 Redmond facility, told GeekWire that NASA has told its suppliers to continue executing the current plan, at least for now.<\/p>\n

Amit Kshatriya, NASA\u2019s deputy associate administrator for the Moon to Mars Program, said propulsion systems from L3Harris will continue to be essential components in NASA\u2019s toolbox even if the long-term plan for Artemis changes. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the wrong argument to think about picking one thing or another,\u201d he said. \u201cThe right argument is, how do we stimulate and create missions and capability across the country in all sorts of different capability classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kshatriya said that NASA\u2019s needs are almost certain to change \u201cfive years from now, 10 years from now, 15 years from now,\u201d and that L3Harris has demonstrated it\u2019ll be able to keep up.<\/p>\n

\u201cA shop like this is the DNA that we need to keep going, which is why we\u2019re so excited to be here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hoburg is excited as well. \u201cWe\u2019re using the moon as a proving ground to figure out how to get to Mars, so it\u2019s a really exciting time,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the Artemis 2 crew that\u2019s embarking on this mission, they\u2019re the pathfinders that are starting a sequence of missions. \u2026 It\u2019s going to be the next step in space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does Hoburg want to go to the moon? His answer was diplomatic. \u201cI want the United States of America to go to the moon,\u201d he told GeekWire. \u201cIt is time to do it. I would love to get to fly one of those missions myself, but I\u2019m proud of our country that we\u2019re leading and executing these missions.\u201d<\/p>\n

During today\u2019s thank-you gathering in Redmond, four L3Harris Aerojet employees received awards from NASA for their contributions to the Artemis program. Brett Mendenhall and Richard Mirabella were given NASA\u2019s Silver Snoopy Award, which must be pinned onto the winner\u2019s lapel by an astronaut. \u201cThat was the part where I try not to draw any blood,\u201d Hoburg quipped.<\/p>\n

Camille Samonte received the NASA Space Flight Awareness Trailblazer Award, and Cory Houck won the SFA Management Award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg faces the TV cameras at L3Harris\u2019 Aerojet Rocketdyne facility in Redmond, Wash. An R-4D-11 thruster and a decontamination oven are off to his left. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle) REDMOND, Wash. \u2014 The first crewed flight around the moon in more than 50 years is still months away, but NASA is […]<\/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":[864,304,1327,190,4390],"class_list":["post-17098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aerojet-rocketdyne","tag-artemis","tag-l3harris","tag-nasa","tag-redmond"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17098"}],"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=17098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17098\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}