STILLWATER, Okla. — NASA hopes Artemis II’s third launch window will be the charm on April 1 for the first manned mission around the moon in more than a half-century. At least 20 key pieces of the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion spacecraft on board the rocket making the feat possible came from a northeast Oklahoma company with employees from Green Country.
“From the very tip of the launch abort system, all the way down to the thruster at the bottom of the SLS rocket, there’s electronics all over it that we build here in Stillwater, Oklahoma,” Frontier Electronic Systems program manager Darryl Smith told 2 News on March 30.
Frontier’s handprints includes the actual hand controller that pilot Victor Glover will use to steer the Orion spacecraft around the Moon and safely back into Earth’s atmosphere.
Glover’s cursor and much of the module’s electronic switch panels also first came from Frontier’s “spacelab”.
One of the hands putting parts for Artemis II (and future Artemis missions) together is OSU grad student Kaylin Isbell, from Jenks.
“It’s definitely really cool to be working on something that you can say you helped on a project (like this), especially assembling boards that you know are going…toward the moon,” Isbell said.
The work isn’t lost on NASA either, Exploration Ground Systems manager Shawn Quinn told 2 News Oklahoma on March 29.
“The contributions of those engineers and the technicians and the people that help make that equipment can’t be overstated,” Quinn said. “They’re a vital part of our space program. So for those folks that are in Oklahoma building those hand controllers, thank you.”
WEB EXTRA>>> Extended interview with NASA Exploration Ground Systems manager Shawn Quinn
Extended Interview- NASA Exploration Ground System Manager Shawn Quinn on Artemis II
The earliest the SLS can launch is April 1, at 5:24pm.
Stillwater’s builders of Artemis II will be cheering on from their home base.
“Seeing the launch going, knowing you worked on something, even just being (from) Jenks, it is really cool,” Isbell said.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere —