To the Moon and Beyond: Airbus Delivers Powerhouse for NASA’s Orion Spacecraft

Airbus staff prepares the European Service Module (ESM) for the U.S. spacecraft "Orion" in Bremen, Germany, on Nov. 1, 2018. Airbus/Handout via Reuters

BERLIN—Europe’s Airbus on Nov. 2, delivered the “powerhouse” for NASA’s new Orion Spaceship that will take astronauts to the Moon and beyond in coming years, hitting a key milestone that should lead to hundreds of millions of euros in future orders.

Engineers at the Airbus plant in Bremen, Germany on Thursday carefully packed the spacecraft into a special container that will fly aboard a huge Antonov cargo plane to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a first step on its way to deep space.