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Paris / Bremen (dpa) - The European aerospace company Airbus has received the order to build three additional service modules for the manned US space mission “Orion”.
The contract has a volume of around 650 million euros, said the General Director of the European Space Agency (ESA) Jan Wörner in an online event on Tuesday.
"This is an important step for Esa and Europe."
Orion is NASA's spacecraft, which is to take astronauts to the moon and to the so-called Lunar Gateway, a planned space station, as part of the Artemis program.
The modules are to be built in Bremen, components also come from companies in other European countries.
The company already has an initial contract for the construction of three service modules.
«Europe has entered a new decade of exploration.
The construction of six European Orion service modules is a project like no other, ”emphasized Andreas Hammer, head of Space Exploration at Airbus, according to the announcement.
Artemis I is the first unmanned Orion test flight with a European service module and is scheduled to start in 2021.
Later, as part of Artemis II, the first astronauts will fly around the moon and back to earth.
Artemis III plans to land on the moon with astronauts by 2024.
The ESMs that have now been commissioned will then be used in the following missions.
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"What could be a question is the date in 2024 when the first American will be back on the moon, as it is always said," said Wörner in a conference call for journalists.
«That might not be feasible.
But that shouldn't be a problem for any of us. "
According to Wörner, the hope is that future generations of European astronauts can be part of this project.
As the heart of the new Orion spaceship, the service module, which weighs almost 13 tons, provides critical functions such as the propulsion system.
It can also carry supplies that the astronauts need to survive.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210202-99-270046 / 2
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