Redwire Corporation, a global leader in space and defense technology solutions, announced that its advanced optical imaging and sun sensor technology will launch on board the Orion spacecraft as part of NASA’s Artemis II mission, the first crewed mission for the Artemis program. Through contracts with Lockheed Martin, NASA’s prime contractor for Orion, Redwire is responsible for the production and testing of the Orion Camera System for Artemis missions I-V.
“You may have heard the phrase, ‘the camera is the mission,’ which certainly still resonates. I am so proud that Redwire is providing its trusted and flight-proven imaging and navigation technology for Artemis II, which will play a vital role in this historic endeavor,” said Mike Gold, President of Redwire Space. “We can’t all be astronauts, but through the amazing imagery that our cameras will capture, the whole world can be a part of the extraordinary journey of discovery that is Artemis II.”
The camera system for Artemis II comprises 11 internal and external inspection and navigation cameras, including wireless cameras positioned on each of Orion’s four solar arrays to allow in-flight inspection of the entire spacecraft. The system’s Optical Navigation Camera provides high-resolution imagery to the spacecraft's machine vision algorithm to determine Orion’s position and velocity relative to Earth. Other cameras will record 4k video and 12MP images and livestream both the inside and outside of the vehicle, including key mission events such as separation, jettison, deployment, and crew demonstrations. The Redwire cameras on board Artemis I successfully captured imagery and video, including livestream views from the solar array wing cameras that were made available to the public throughout the mission.
Redwire is also providing four redundant Coarse Sun Sensor (CSS) assemblies for Orion’s European Service Module (ESM) through a contract with Airbus. The CSS is part of Orion’s solar power generation system and will provide important data to the Solar Array Drive Electronics to adjust the ESM’s solar panels. The CSS was part of and performed successfully on Artemis I.
Click here to know more about Redwire's Coarse Sun Sensor
