Without Mason workforce, ‘We go nowhere,’ NASA tells L3Harris teams

The company helped NASA with the Artemis 1 launch last November, sending an Orion spacecraft on a 25-day journey to and around the moon, giving observers a view of the Earth not seen from a human-rated spacecraft since the last Apollo mission in 1972.

NASA makes a point of thanking its lead suppliers, Marcia Lindstrom, who handles strategic communications for the SLS program, told employees in Mason.

Those suppliers include L3Harris, she said.

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

“Without the work at L3Harris, we go nowhere,” Lindstrom said. “We don’t go from Mason to the moon. We go nowhere.”

While the Artemis timeline can be in flux, Artemis II today is scheduled to be a crewed flight in November 2024, sending four astronauts around the moon. The Artemis III mission is slated to land human beings once again on the surface of the moon.

And while the Artemis effort may be relatively new, L3Harris’ relationship with NASA really isn’t. Technology provided by L3Harris has been instrumental to the all human space flights, both NASA and company leaders said.

During the first eight minutes of last year’s Artemis I flight, more than 30 L3Harris space launch avionics systems enabled command and control, trajectory and solid rocket booster jettison for the SLS.

About 100 Mason employees were directly involved in designing, testing and fabricating the 33 different avionics units on the NASA vehicle.

Before that, L3Harris know-how went into the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover that landed on the red planet in early 2021.

L3Harris has had a role in an array of NASA programs, including the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Space Shuttle, International Space Station and previous Mars missions.

“You’re part of history, and don’t you forget it,” Lindstrom told L3Harris teams.

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

Amit Kshatriya, deputy associate administrator of the moon-to-Mars program, said he wanted to give the company “a very profound thank you for your incredible work.”

In all, L3Harris said it provides more than 80 systems that ensure safe operation of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft.

Without L3 Harris’ contributions, the four-member Artemis astronaut team “may not survive,” astronaut Lee Morin told workers. Morin today focuses on the design of the Orion cockpit.

The Mason company also contributes to the RS-25 engine, avionics for the rocket’s booster, core and upper stages, the NASA Orion audio system and components for the planned “Gateway” lunar space station — a human-tended space station which NASA hopes to build in orbit around the moon, a critical part of upcoming Artemis missions.

The Dayton area in general has been important to NASA. Research at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base has been helping NASA prepare for crewed space flights.