Unfolding an Orion Solar Array Wing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. NASA’s Orion spacecraft will have four solar wings measuring 7 m in total.

The solar wings were shipped from an Airbus facility in Leiden, The Netherlands by aircraft to Miami airport and on to the Kennedy Space Center and arrived in March 2019.

Each wing stretches more than 7 m but will be folded inside the Space Launch Systems rocket that will launch the Orion spacecraft on its first unmanned mission. Orion sports four wings of three panels with 1242 cells per panel to provide 11.1 kW of power – enough to run two typical European households.

The European Service Module is ESA’s contribution to NASA’s Orion spacecraft that will send astronauts to the Moon and beyond. It provides electricity, water, oxygen and nitrogen as well as keeping the spacecraft at the right temperature and on course.