To the Moon and Beyond
Artemis is NASA's program to return astronauts to the lunar surface.
Space Launch System (SLS), which launches the Artemis missions, is the rocket designed for deep-space exploration and human travel beyond Earth’s orbit. L3Harris is the prime contractor for the RS-25 engines and provides critical avionics for the rocket’s booster, core and upper stage.
Orion is the spacecraft designed to carry humans to deep space. L3Harris provides propulsion systems used to propel and steer Orion, as well as composite overwrapped pressure vessels for the spacecraft’s life support and self-righting flotation system.
We've also been tapped to provide the NASA Orion audio system that will connect astronauts to each other, to mission control and to the world during the Artemis missions – as the Orion spacecraft carries them from Earth to lunar orbit and back.
Gateway is the lunar space station that will support the NASA-led Artemis missions to return humans to the Moon and serve as foundation for human missions to Mars. L3Harris provides the Advanced Electric Propulsion System thrusters for the power and propulsion element of Gateway.
For six decades, L3Harris has partnered with NASA to develop technology that's been critical to the evolution of human spaceflight. In fact, our technology has been part of every crewed NASA mission: from Project Mercury to Apollo, from the Space Shuttle era to the International Space Station (ISS) era and now beyond – as part of NASA’s Artemis missions.
Image Credit: NASA/MSFC
L3Harris provides upper stage avionics. The Upper stage will propel Orion to the Moon.
See MoreL3Harris provides critical booster avionics. The boosters power SLS to launch payloads to the Moon and beyond.
Read MoreDuring the first eight minutes of flight, the L3Harris booster and core avionics are hard at work.
See MoreL3Harris provides critical core stage avionics. The core stage houses the flight computer and the majority of avionics to control flight.
See MoreL3Harris provides the Jettison Motor for Orion’s Launch Abort System (LAS).
See MoreL3Harris provides 20 rocket engines aboard the Orion spacecraft that are used to propel and orient the spacecraft throughout each mission.
See MoreL3Harris is NASA’s prime contractor for the four RS-25 rocket engines that provide more than two million pounds of combined thrust to propel the rocket during the first eight minutes of flight.
See MoreL3Harris provides the RL10 rocket engine that provides 24,750 pounds of thrust to power the SLS’s Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, as well as a suite of reaction control system thrusters.
See MoreFeatured News
Press release | 08. 13. 2024
L3Harris Marks Artemis III and IV Jettison Solid Rocket Motor Milestones
L3Harris Technologies has achieved a significant milestone by successfully casting the jettison motor, a key component of the Launch Abort System (LAS) for NASA’s Orion spacecraft, for Artemis III and IV.
Media Gallery
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) in the Block 1 cargo configuration illustration as it leaves Earth. Illustration credit: NASA/Editor: Jennifer Harbaugh
This illustration depicts NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in the Block 1B crew configuration as it is rolled out on the mobile launcher from the Vertical Assembly Building to the launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Illustration c
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop a mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
L3Harris' Advanced Electric Propulsion System development thruster for the AEPS program operated at full power during testing at NASA Glenn, August 2019.
Four RS-25 engines attached to the core Stage for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket for NASA’s Artemis I mission to the Moon. Image courtesy of NASA.
An L3Harris RL10C-X prototype engine, which includes 3-D printed core components, undergoes hot-fire testing at our facility in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The jettison motor for Orion’s Launch Abort System successfully completed its second qualification test at Redstone Arsenal.
