Artemis II will carry historic keepsakes aboard Orion on crewed lunar test flight

NASA’s Artemis II mission will carry a collection of mementos in its official flight kit aboard the Orion spacecraft as it carries four astronauts around the Moon on the first crewed test flight of the Artemis campaign. The spacecraft will launch atop the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

The kit includes a 1-by-1-inch swatch of muslin from the 1903 Wright Flyer lent by the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum (a smaller piece of that swatch previously flew on STS-51D in 1985), a 13-by-8-inch American flag that flew on STS-1, STS-135 and SpaceX Demo-2, a flag that was set to fly on Apollo 18 making its premiere flight, a 4-by-5-inch negative from the Ranger 7 mission, soil samples from the bases of Artemis I "Moon Trees" planted at NASA’s 10 centers, tree seeds from the Canadian Space Agency, an SD card containing millions of names from the "Send Your Name to Space" campaign, and assorted flags, patches and pins to be distributed after the mission.

The kit will also carry items from partners, including CSA stickers and patches and an ESA flag, and Orion’s European Service Module is provided by ESA. The roughly 10‑pound flight kit continues a tradition dating to the 1960s and builds on Artemis I’s symbolic flight kit, augmenting scientific research aboard Orion.

After Artemis II, some items will be distributed to stakeholders, employees and educators, and the Wright Flyer swatch will be reunited with two other 1903 swatches at the Smithsonian, the agency said.

Key Topics

Science, Artemis Ii, Orion Spacecraft, Space Launch System, Nasa, Smithsonian