This Redmond company's tech will guide Artemis II back to Earth

This Friday evening, the Artemis II crew expects to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. And when that happens, technology from the Pacific Northwest will take center stage.

When Artemis II launched, powerful rocket engines pushed it into space.

But on the way back, small thrusters keep the capsule pointed heat-shield-down so it doesn’t burn up in the atmosphere.

The thrusters were made at L3Harris in Redmond, along with several other critical parts on the spacecraft.

It's a company with roots that go way back to the 1960s, when former Boeing engineers founded a rocket company in Seattle.

Later, the company moved to Redmond, changed names, merged with other companies, and was bought by a larger company now known as L3Harris.

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But through all that, the local operation never left, thanks to the skilled labor pool.

L3Harris employee Jennifer Domanowski didn’t know that history growing up here, even though her dad was an air flight mechanic at Boeing.

“I just didn't necessarily make the connection of everything that we were doing for space, specifically in NASA," Domanowski said. "So, I think knowing that is very powerful. I think if I'd understood that at a younger age, I would've maybe made certain choices earlier to study what I did.”

Now, she’s a rocket engineer.

Nikhita Sathiyan joined the company after graduating from college.

“ It's pretty surreal," she said, "especially because you go to school and you learn all of these things and you think, 'I'm gonna become a rocket engineer,' and then you go actually work on rockets and seeing the kinds of things you work on come to life.”

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Today there’s a whole ecosystem of local space companies going for the same NASA contracts. Some are big companies with local offices, others are startups that create niche products.

On a recent tour of local aerospace manufacturers, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell said 41 Washington state companies contributed technology or expertise to the Artemis II mission. And in the future, that could grow, as NASA turns more to private companies.

After the crew capsule splashes down into the ocean just off the California coast, the astronauts will still need to get out.

That’s when a hatch release system from a company in Mukilteo will blow the door off.