Hardware

Full-flow staged combustion methane/LOX engine. SpaceX's third-generation Raptor producing ~230 tf thrust. Powers both Starship and Super Heavy. 33 Raptors in Super Heavy booster.

Lockheed Martin-built crew capsule for up to 4 astronauts on deep space missions. AVCOAT ablative heat shield rated for 11 km/s lunar return reentry. Paired with ESA's European Service Module.

Airbus-built service module providing propulsion, power, and life support for Orion. Four deployable solar wings generating 11.2 kW. 33 engines. 20,000+ parts, 12 km of cable.

Liquid hydrogen/LOX engine powering the SLS core stage. Modified Space Shuttle Main Engine producing 512,000 lbf vacuum thrust. Four fly on each SLS launch.

Oxygen-rich staged combustion methalox engine producing 2.4 MN thrust. Powers Blue Origin's New Glenn first stage (7 engines) and ULA's Vulcan Centaur (2 engines).

Electric-pump-fed LOX/RP-1 engine for Rocket Lab's Electron launch vehicle. First rocket engine with a fully 3D-printed combustion chamber. 25 kN vacuum thrust.

Next-generation lunar EVA suit developed by Axiom Space under NASA contract, with Prada design collaboration. Built for permanently shadowed lunar south pole — extreme cold, regolith, limited visibility. Will be tested in microgravity on Artemis III.

SpaceX's proprietary variant of NASA's PICA (Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator) heat shield. Used on Dragon capsule for ISS mission reentries. Significantly lighter than AVCOAT.

Ablative heat shield protecting Orion capsule during 11 km/s reentry from lunar distances. Uses AVCOAT foam compound applied in honeycomb cells. Artemis I showed unexpected but non-critical ablation patterns driving design improvements for Artemis III.

Soviet balloon deployed in Venus atmosphere during 1985 VEGA mission. Floated at 54 km altitude in the cloud layer for ~46 hours. Transmitted atmospheric science data used to validate Veenie's Venus atmospheric engine (2.2% accuracy match).

AI-powered robotic system contributed by Canada to the Artemis program. Unlike Canadarm2 on ISS, Canadarm3 can operate autonomously without ground control. Designed for the now-cancelled Lunar Gateway but still part of Canada's Artemis commitment.