Technicians with the European Space Agency and Airbus/Airbus Netherlands are shown performing an illumination test on one of the solar array wing panels during installation on the Orion spacecraft for Artemis I inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building high bay at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 30, 2020. The solar arrays were extended, inspected, and then retracted, before installation on the spacecraft. Each solar array panel will generate 11 kilowatts of power and span about 63 feet. Image: NASA/Frank Michaux
Legacy names in European spaceflight and defense, Airbus, Leonardo and Thales, announced a memorandum of understanding on Thursday to combine forces in a new entity designed to rival other aerospace juggernauts in this arena, like Boeing, Lockheed Martin and SpaceX.