Artemis I Solar Array Wing Installation

Members of the European Service Module processing team from the European Space Agency (ESA), Airbus, and Airbus Netherlands fit a protective cover over the solar array wings on the Orion spacecraft for Artemis I inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building high bay at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 25, 2020. The solar arrays were extended, inspected, and then retracted before installation on the spacecraft. Each solar array panel will generate 11 kilowatts of power and span about 63 feet. The array is a component of Orion’s service module, which is provided by ESA and built by Airbus Defence and Space to supply Orion’s power, propulsion, air, and water. The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will test the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon. Under the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and the next man on the Moon in 2024.