Mastodawn

Yet another #Artemis II article (from a French press agency, no less) ignoring that propulsion, power, & life support to the Orion capsule are provided by ESA’s European Service Module.

Built in Bremen by Airbus, with parts from all over Europe, e.g. solar wings made in Leiden.

Also no mention of the fact that the ESM’s for the Moon-landing Artemis IV & V missions are to be supplied as part of ESA’s contribution to the Lunar Gateway.

Which NASA cancelled last week.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/apr/03/artemis-ii-astronauts-rocket-towards-the-moon-after-breaking-free-of-earths-orbit

Artemis II astronauts now closer to the moon than the Earth

Crew members can now see the moon, which one described as ‘a beautiful sight’, from their spacecraft’s docking hatch

The Guardian

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Mike Knell

@markmccaughrean @happydisciple I'm sure Austria isn't the only European country whose media is running excited stories about the country's contributions to the ESM. Pressurisation lines from Styria! The service module backbone network from Vienna!

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Mark McCaughrean 2d ago

@m @happydisciple I would hope that’s the case, as ESA & its Member States (thus the taxpayers) have spent a lot of money on the ESM 🙂 I do know that the Leiden-built solar wings were trumpeted on TV in NL, but quite whether this message is getting across to the general public more broadly, I don’t know.

If & when a European flies on Artemis, that should change, but even then, as we know, ESA astronauts are generally only well-known in their home country.