Moog has expanded its Elma, N.Y., assembly facility to ramp up production of hardware for NASA's Artemis program, including parts intended to support a planned Moon landing in 2028. The company supplies thrust-vector actuators and Orion life-support components — including the mechanism for the roughly 700-pound side hatch. Moog says more than 1,000 local employees contributed to crew-module components, that hardware for Artemis 3 has been delivered, and that the firm is hiring to meet future demand.
Moog Expands Elma Plant, Ramps Up Hardware Production for Upcoming Artemis Missions
NASA
The success of the Artemis 2 mission has catalyzed expansion and increased production at Moog's assembly facility on Jamison Road in Elma, New York. The company says the enlarged workspace is preparing hardware for upcoming Artemis missions — including the planned crewed Moon landing in 2028 — and for follow-on exploration work that could support missions beyond the Moon.
What Moog Builds For Artemis
Moog supplies precision actuators used in thrust-vector control systems that steer large rocket engines — technology that has been used on Artemis rockets, the Space Shuttle and the Apollo-Saturn V vehicles. In Elma, designers, engineers, machinists and technicians produce components distributed throughout rockets and spacecraft systems.
Moog also manufactures life-support and crew-module hardware for NASA’s Orion capsule, including oxygen systems and the mechanism that opens the roughly 700-pound side hatch used during post-splashdown crew recovery and egress.
"Over a thousand employees here in East Aurora worked on the design, development and qualification just for the components we provide for the crew module,"
"We supply that door opening mechanism — that side hatch. For me, watching that capsule land and watching the crew, the diver rescue team get to them, and then finally seeing them get that door open. That's when it's that big sigh of relief: 'OK, mission accomplished.'"
Reliability, Delivery And Local Impact
Many Moog components are engineered with multiple-fault tolerance and redundancy so systems can tolerate failures and continue operating until repair is possible. The company reports it has already delivered hardware supporting the Artemis 3 mission; Moog says the associated Orion capsule is at Kennedy Space Center and awaits integration into the flight stack.
Employees at the Elma facility described strong professional pride in contributing to human exploration. Several staff members were able to watch the Artemis 2 launch and described the emotional payoff after years of design, testing, qualification and delivery.
The expanded Elma plant signals continued production work in the coming years, and Moog is hiring to meet growing demand for components on the Artemis program and other space projects.
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