Ein guter Tag für Bremen, ein guter Tag für Spitzentechnologie aus Europa: Die US-Raumfahrt setzt auch bei ihrer bemannten Orion-Mission auf Hochtechnologie aus Europa. Airbus Defence and Space erhielt einen Auftrag über 200 Millionen Euro zum Bau eines zweiten Servicemoduls. Der Vertrag wurde am 16.2.2017 in Bremen von der Europäischen Weltraumorganisation (ESA) als Auftraggeber und Airbus unterschrieben. In der Bremer Luft- und Raumfahrtbranche erwirtschaften mehr als 140 Unternehmen und 20 Institute mit rund 12.000 Beschäftigten pro Jahr über 4 Mrd. Euro.
Das Statement von Bürgermeister Dr. Carsten Sieling auf der Pressekonferenz – ORION Vertrag Unterzeichnung:
„Good Morning, Hello and Best Greetings from the Senate of Bremen!
I am very happy to attend this press-conference today on the occasion of the contract-signature-ceremony concerning the preparation of the second mission of ORION – or more precisely: the signature of the contract given by ESA to Airbus DS concerning the procurement of another ESM European Service Module for the second ORION Mission. This contract is not only a big achievement for Airbus DS, but it is also very important for the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen with regard to its reputation as „the City of Space“.
The European part of ORION, called ESM or European Service Module, which is developed and build here in Bremen, is an essential element of all future exploration missions. This programme was kicked off two years ago (on Nov. 17, 2014) with the contract signature between ESA and Airbus DS in Berlin concerning the development and the manufacturing of the ESM for a first mission. Meanwhile there is much progress, and there is much hardware built for verification and test activities. The flight hardware will soon be ready, and the total system will hopefully be on time at the end of next year for its first lift off. This maiden flight will be an unmanned mission around the moon followed by a second flight in 2021, which will be a manned mission.
For Bremen these ORION missions within the common exploration programme are very much needed, because they will ensure the continuation of „Manned space activities“ at Airbus DS, and because they are taking advantage from the unique local skills and technical Know-How. These capabilities were built up during the realization of many Manned Space Programmes over 40 years: starting from Spacelab to several Space Shuttle elements followed by Columbus and five ATV’s and ending now at ORION.
Sorry for still having used the old name „manned space” programmes instead of „astronautical space” programmes. I should have said “astronautical” in order to demonstrate our attitude on equal involvement of women and men in space business.
The ORION cooperation, that we are celebrating today with the contract signature for the second flight module, is the start of a new quality of cooperation between NASA and ESA. This new quality is based on a cooperation with a stronger inter-dependence than cooperations were in the past. The ORION system can only be successful, if both partners will be successful. There is no redundancy or back-up solution, if one partner is not able to deliver on time. This kind of cooperation is only possible between friends, who are relying and trusting each other completely, and therefore we are very proud, that NASA is willing to accept the European ESM-Team as a confident and reliable partner.
I wish the ORION ESM project to be successful on the first two missions, and I am even looking forward to see some additional missions with service modules „made in Bremen“. I want to highlight once more the importance of the ORION programme not only for Bremen but for all involved countries, because big cooperative space programmes are able to bridge all political boarders for a peaceful common use of space.
Coming to the end I like to announce two big space events that will take place in Bremen:
First: the SPACETEC Expo in November this year, that is a large fair for space companies with more than 220 booths in the exhibition and with about 2500 international guests.
Second: the IAC (the International Astronautical Congress) in October next year, which is the biggest annual space conference of the world with about 4000 guests.
Both events are worthwhile for coming to Bremen in order to meet the international space community, to exchange views and for doing space business.
Thank you and congratulations to ESA, NASA and Airbus.“
Fotos: ESA/Airbus
