The European powerhouse that will fuel humanity's journey beyond the Moon

Space · Published 14 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: NASA and the European Space Agency have forged a critical partnership to power Orion, the spacecraft destined for deep space. While the crew capsule holds the astronauts, it is a 4-meter cylindrical module from Europe that serves as the vehicle's backbone, providing everything from oxygen to propulsion.

On January 16, 2013, NASA announced an agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA) for ESA to provide the service module for Orion’s Exploration Mission-1 in 2017. This partnership is a strategic expansion of the cooperation seen on the International Space Station. By providing this hardware and design elements, ESA fulfills its share of operational costs and supporting services for the station while securing a role in deep-space exploration.

The service module functions as the spacecraft's life support and propulsion hub. It houses large tanks for fuel, water, oxygen, and nitrogen, while radiators and heat exchangers maintain a stable temperature for the crew. Structurally, it acts like a car chassis, providing the backbone for the entire vehicle. Once above the atmosphere and the rocket fairing is jettisoned, its solar array unfolds to a span of 19 meters to generate electricity.

Technically, the module is an unpressurized cylinder roughly 4 meters long. It contains three types of engines capable of turning Orion in any direction for orbital transfer and attitude control. The design evolved from ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle, which previously delivered supplies to the International Space Station. This European-built powerhouse remains attached to the crew capsule until just before the final return to Earth.

NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft will undergo their initial combined flight trial during Exploration Mission-1 in 2017. It follows an earlier uncrewed test in 2014, where an Orion vehicle launched on a Delta IV Heavy to reach 3,600 miles above Earth—a distance farther than any human spacecraft had traveled in 40 years.

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