After years of planning, development and construction, the European Service Module (ESM) (www.esa.int) that will power NASA’s Orion spacecraft on its journey beyond the moon is ready to be shipped.

The fully tested and sealed ESM will be flown from Bremen this month (on an Antonov cargo plane) to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will be integrated with the rest of the spacecraft.

The ESM will provide power, water, air and electricity to the Orion exploration spacecraft (Orion’s solar ‘wings’ will be shipped separately, also from Bremen).

In the USA, the module will be stacked together with NASA’s Crew Module Adaptor and Crew Module.

This is the first time NASA has used a European-built system to power an American spacecraft.

Work is already under way on the second ESM. The structure is complete, and over 11km of cables are being meticulously placed in preparation for the computers and other equipment needed for the second Orion mission, called Exploration Mission-2.