BIDDEFORD, Maine — While NASA had to postpone its planned launch for Artemis 1 on Monday, when that launch does take place, equipment manufactured in Maine will be onboard.
"Our valves are the bread and butter of this system," Brittin Irwin, a technical project manager with FMI, a Spirit AeroSystems Company, said.
The space and defense contractor based in Biddeford manufactured critical propulsion components for Orion’s Launch Abort System. That may sound confusing. In short, the equipment made at their facility in Biddeford works to keep astronauts safe during one of the most dangerous parts of a space flight mission.
"The launch abort system is in case of a first stage failure. It's a seatbelt for the astronauts," Irwin said. "You have one solid rocket motor that boosts the capsule away from the boosters. And you have our eight valves that control the direction of the capsule as it's landing back to safety. So, best case scenario, our parts are not in action."
According to Brittin, the valves created in Biddeford help propel the crew module away from the rocket within milliseconds if a life-threatening event were to happen during launch.
Brittin added the equipment made by FMI can sustain extremely high temperatures, which is essential in a launch setting.
"To physically be putting hands on something that's going to go to another planet and come back again is really, really cool," Chad Robbins said. Robbins is an automation technician with FMI. He worked closely with the heat shields that the company manufactured, which have been used in multiple NASA projects.
"It's really just to keep all of the sensitive and electronic and mechanical components behind the heat shield from melting basically, as it would without our product," Robbins said.
According to Robbins, heat shields manufactured by FMI have been used in NASA missions, including Perseverance and Stardust, and one can also be seen when the OSIRIS-REx mission returns to earth in 2023.
According to Kate Whitney, marketing communications with FMI, the company is hiring as it continues to expand and support additional NASA projects, as well as other defense-related projects.