RTOS for Artemis Aptiv Celebrates NASA’s Successful Artemis II Mission

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Aptiv’s VxWorks software played an important role in the successful completion of the Artemis II mission and the safe return of four astronauts from the first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years.

VxWorks provides the software platform enabling deterministic performance for critical functions on the Space Launch System’s (SLS) first stage of launch and within the Orion crew vehicle. VxWorks is the industry’s most trusted and widely deployed real-time operating systems (RTOS) for mission-critical applications where safety and security are essential.  It has powered dozens of NASA missions, from the Mars rovers to the James Webb Space Telescope, and as a key OS layer for multiple NASA core Flight System elements, it is implemented across the Artemis missions.

“Artemis II is a reminder of what is possible when the right software underpins the right mission,” said Jay Bellissimo, Senior Vice President and President, Intelligent Systems, Software and Services, Aptiv. “Our teams have spent decades building software that people trust with their lives. Seeing that software on a mission to bring four astronauts around the moon and back is something for which we’re truly proud.”

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Engineering Between Sensing, Software and Mission

For 10 days, the Artemis II crew aboard Orion, NASA’s deep space crew vehicle, ventured around the Moon and back, confirming that the spacecraft’s systems performed as designed in deep space, validating the critical life support systems needed for longer duration missions, and giving the crew the opportunity to practice operations essential to Artemis III and beyond.

“Artemis II is one of the most significant human spaceflight missions in a generation, and it was an honor to be a part of it,” said Paul Miller, Chief Technology Officer, Software and Services, Aptiv. “For nearly 30 years, our teams have worked to make software that performs without fail when it matters most. This mission is proof of what that commitment looks like in practice. We congratulate NASA and the entire Artemis team on bringing their crew home.”

Across numerous critical phases and components, VxWorks was the software enabling reliable, real-time performance for the Artemis II mission, from the SLS, the rocket that carried the crew out of Earth’s orbit, to the systems that sustained the astronauts through deep space and brought them safely home.

A critical layer of crew safety throughout the mission was the Orion Backup Flight System (BFS). Class A certified and fully independent from the primary flight system, the BFS was built with a deliberately different architecture, with no shared failure modes or common vulnerabilities.

Beyond the flight software, Aptiv’s digital twin simulation ensured that every line of software was fully validated before it ran on physical hardware. Teams tested unmodified target software on a virtual platform that behaved exactly as the real system would, decoupling software development from hardware availability. Up to 80-90 percent of simulation models can be reused for future missions.