A team of volunteers at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada is constructing a full-scale, walk-in replica of the Orion spacecraft crew capsule—the same vessel NASA used for its historic Artemis II mission around the moon.
“We’re starting from scratch here,” said Marsh Pettitt, the museum’s head of restoration. “And that’s the fun part—it’s a DIY at somebody else’s expense.”
The project demands considerable ingenuity. NASA has not publicly released construction specifications for the Orion capsule, leaving the volunteer crew to piece together details from available sources. Retired engineer Gene Manchur is among those on the team.
“Where we’re getting our information is basically the internet,” Manchur said. “You get pictures, you get a little bit of sketching, but it’s really bare bones.”
One thing that is very public is the general size of the Orion capsule. The real Orion is roughly the size of two minivans—a tight fit for four astronauts and their equipment.
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Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, speaking at a news conference Thursday, confirmed just how cramped the quarters were during the 10-day journey.
“I didn’t think we would get as exceptionally good at crawling over each other for 10 days,” Wiseman said. “But we got good at that too. It’s tight up there.”
The museum’s replica will be somewhat more spacious, sized to allow visitors to move freely inside.
“You’ll understand the shape, the size, the constraints as you can see inside the shell,” Pettitt said. “You’ll get a good idea of what it’s like inside.”
And you’ll be able to go inside more than once. The replica capsule will be a permanent exhibit at the museum. Officials from the museum hope it will be completed by this summer.
