SW Ohio company helped NASA’S rocket liftoff

Mason’s L3harris provided the booster, core and upper stage aviation electronics for Artemis I.

With a little help from a Mason company, NASA’S uncrewed Artemis 1 moon rocket lifted off in the pre-dawn darkness Wednesday from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

The goal behind the launching of the 100m-tall Artemis vehicle is to demonstrate that it can carry astronauts on a journey of more than a million miles to the Moon.

This spacecraft is named Orion, and it is hoped that people will climb aboard for future missions to the lunar surface.

Technology provided by

Mason’s L3harris has been instrumental to the effort.

The Mason company provided the booster, core and upper stage avionics, or aviation electronics, for Artemis I.

That means that during the first eight minutes of flight, more than 30 L3harris space launch avionics systems enable command and control, trajectory and solid rocket booster jettison for the SLS (or Space Launch

System), said Penny Bena, segment creative lead for L3harris.

“Our technology are the avionics units that help power the vehicle. It controls that big, powerful machine,” L3harris Chief Technologist Mark Dapore said in an interview with this news outlet in August, after a previous Artemis launch attempt had been scrubbed.

“We were all extremely happy with the way the launch occurred last night,” Bena said Wednesday morning.

“For decades NASA relied on L3harris’ expertise and technology — from early spacecraft through the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Space Shuttle, International Space Station and Mars missions,” Kristin Houston, president of electro optical for L3harris, said in a release.“today’s

NASA