Artemis crew compliments Dutch company - but for what?
The Netherlands was specifically thanked by one of the astronauts for contributing to the moon mission. Two videos from ESA show what for.
Those who wanted to witness it live had to stay up late on the night of Friday to Saturday, but was rewarded with a happy ending: the return to Earth of the crew of the lunar mission Artemis II. With a beautiful splash, the Orion capsule - all that was left of the giant rocket launched 10 days earlier - landed in the Pacific Ocean.
Thanks!
What seemed almost more impressive in the Netherlands were the words spoken by mission commander Reid Wiseman on the way back to Earth from the moon. 'We would like to express our thanks to the ESA Airbus team and to our friends in the Netherlands and Germany,' he said. 'This spacecraft has propelled us and taken us from Earth to the moon and back with extreme precision, and we are proud to be part of this team.'
Electricity
The US space mission was prepared in close cooperation with European partners. The European space agency ESA developed the rear section of the NASA spacecraft, with the engines, oxygen, water and temperature control. The solar panels that generated the electricity for use aboard the Orion had been developed and built by space company Airbus Netherlands of Leiden.
Adjustment
Wiseman's statement also seemed to refer to the engines, meant for steering the capsule on its way through the cosmos. Movements of mass inside the Orion, whether intended or not, can cause the moon to change very slightly, and of course the last thing you want as an astronaut is to end up on the wrong place, when returning. The prevention of that was taken care of by the ESA Service Module.
