Explore fun facts about the Orion spacecraft.

The Orion Program, managed by NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, is a broad national and international collaboration. Multiple NASA centers, international partners, and industry contractors contribute to the spacecraft, from building hardware to supporting mission operations.

The Orion Program conducted rigorous testing of the spacecraft, from element-level testing with test articles for the crew module, service module, LAS, parachute system, and other supporting systems—including both flight tests and ground tests—to integrated testing of the full spacecraft that have…

The Orion primary flight computers have over 750,000 lines of code that operate all the spacecraft systems, including power, communications, guidance, navigation, control, thermal management, instrumentation, and propulsion.

Orion’s launch abort system, also known as the LAS, is designed to carry the crew to safety in the event of an emergency during launch or ascent atop NASA’s SLS rocket. It can activate within milliseconds to pull the spacecraft away from…

Orion’s European Service Module is provided by ESA (European Space Agency) and built by lead contractor Airbus. It is the powerhouse that fuels and propels the Orion spacecraft in space.

The crew module is the pressurized part of the Orion spacecraft, sometimes referred to as the capsule, where crew members live and work on their journey to the Moon and back to Earth. It is the only portion of Orion that returns to…

Orion has been specially designed and tested to make sure astronauts can live and work safely in the capsule during multi-week Artemis missions. Countless details inside and outside the spacecraft are meticulously thought through to ensure that astronauts are protected…

During a ceremony hosted by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman at the agency’s headquarters in Washington on Monday, the Republic of Türkiye signed the Artemis Accords, joining the growing international coalition of like-minded nations dedicated to peaceful, transparent space exploration. “It…

From left to right: NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor from President Donald J. Trump on Aug. 28, 2026, for…

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story, originally published in December, was revised Aug. 26, 2026 with an update on a new phase of testing, including video from a recent test run and new images. EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was corrected Sept. 2,…

President Donald J. Trump will award each of NASA’s Artemis II crew members the Congressional Space Medal of Honor at 11 a.m. EDT on Friday, Aug. 28, during a ceremony at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA astronauts…

NASA Artemis III Chief Training Officer Debbie O’Connell discusses how the crew is preparing for one of NASA’s most challenging missions yet. Episode 434

NASA’s 737 aircraft was painted this week in Oklahoma as it progresses with modifications for use as a reduced gravity test aircraft for the agency. NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, took ownership of the aircraft from the…

As a young girl raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, Lindsey Waitt dreamed of working for NASA. Her dream is now a reality as she embarks on her role as a NASA test project engineer with the Artemis launch team – an…

NASA has declared “wrenches down” on the first completed payload designed for Artemis astronauts to deploy on the Moon’s surface. Engineers working on NASA’s Lunar Environment Monitoring Station, or LEMS, have completed hardware development and testing and the payload is…

As NASA sets its sights on long-term exploration of the Moon and Mars, the agency is increasing the cadence of its Artemis missions. Helping bring these plans to fruition is Tom Percy, manager of systems engineering and integration for NASA’s…

Technicians joined the Orion crew and service modules together on July 30, 2026, inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew module will carry and sustain NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, Andre…

Using ground-based telescopes and space-based assets, NASA and SpaceX are tracking a used Falcon 9 upper stage from a commercial mission expected to impact the Moon on Wednesday, Aug. 5, near the Einstein and Bell craters. The impact poses no…

NASA is making progress in building the Moon Base, which will become a resilient outpost near the Moon’s South Pole for science, technology, and eventual human operations. To advance lunar surface infrastructure development, commercial partners such as Blue Origin, Firefly…

NASA delivered the NavCube3-mini payload on July 13 to Intuitive Machines for integration into Altus-1, the company’s first lunar relay satellite, marking an important milestone in the development of future lunar communications and navigation services. The lunar relays are designed to enable communications and navigation for astronauts and rovers operating at the agency’s future Moon…

NASA and its industry partners are preparing for next year’s Artemis III demonstration mission by completing new wind tunnel tests on SpaceX’s Super Heavy Version 3 rocket booster. The tests, conducted at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley,…

NASA and Blue Origin announced Friday they recently agreed to conduct second stage hot fire testing for the company’s New Glenn rocket on the B-2 test stand at the agency’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The annex…

Crews at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans transport the 130-foot-tall Artemis IV liquid hydrogen tank out of a production cell inside the main factory building into a detached test building on a separate portion of the 829-acre site on…

Acompáñanos en esta edición especial de Universo curioso de la NASA mientras hacemos un recorrido por la misión Artemis II de principio a fin. Revivimos la expectación en los días previos al despegue, la potencia del histórico lanzamiento y el…