Orion model at the ESTEC Mission Evaluation Room

At ESA’s technical heart in Noordwijk, The Netherlands (ESTEC), engineers monitor the European Service Module for the Artemis missions to the Moon. Experts from ESA, Airbus and Thales Alenia Space constantly watch the European Service Module’s systems from countdown to launch and during flight. The operational team is located in the Erasmus Support Facility (ESF), a multi-purpose control centre which supports users from the International Space Station European Robotic Arm, ESA’s Columbus Space Station module and public relations teams.

The European Service Module engineers have their own console and computer with multiple screens to display the various engineering data received from the Orion spacecraft. The personnel on duty are “on console”. The teams talk to each other over voice-loops which are connected to the Johnson Space Center and are grouped by private circuits called “loops” and can select who to talk with using a dedicated touchscreen. The system is also used for International Space Station operations. The European Service Module call sign is “Eagle” followed by the system they are monitoring, so a conversation will start with “Orion MER, Eagle Propulsion on MER coordination loop 1” for example.