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Justice celebrates Constellium’s role in Artemis space missions

RAVENSWOOD – Jim Justice, West Virginia’s junior U.S. senator, has often referred to the state’s economic potential as a “rocket ship ride,” but Wednesday he paid tribute to the men and women who are making the nation’s return to the moon possible.

Justice made his first visit to the Constellium Rolled Products Ravenswood plant Wednesday morning, along with his English bulldog Babydog, to celebrate the facility’s contributions to NASA’s Artemis space program. Speaking to a room full of plant employees, Justice said “exciting” would not adequately describe the accomplishments of the Constellium team.

“That’s the understatement of all time. It’s amazing,” Justice said. “You give us in so many ways, dignity and excellence and craftsmanship and intelligence. You give us all that. And the world stands to the side and says, ‘I can’t possibly believe it.'”

Workers at Constellium manufactured critical structural elements for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket constructed by Boeing and the Orion Crew Module constructed by Lockheed Martin. These included the capsule itself that sent NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen orbiting around the Moon on a 10-day mission in April for Artemis II, returning safely to Earth.

Constellium’s aluminum components are also found in the stage adapter assembly, the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen tanks and intertank system, as well was the heat shields for the rocket.

The next mission slated for next year, Artemis III, will be a low-Earth orbit mission to test the rendezvous and docking systems of the Orion capsule and commercial lander systems that will be used on the Moon. The Artemis IV mission, slated for 2028, will put astronauts back on the Moone for the first time since 1972.

“We continue to partner with NASA and its prime contractors on Artemis next generations that are going to ultimately establish a presence on the moon and ideally get to Mars,” said Brian McCallie, vice president of Constellium Rolled Products Ravenswood. “It’s a great partnership we have with NASA ... and we work really well together. I see that continuing for the future.”

Constellium aluminum is also being used in the commercial lander system being developed by Blue Origin, the private rocket company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, as well as a low-orbit fueling tanker that will be used to refuel lunar rovers.

“We make some very special and unique products here, and those products include alloys that we’ve developed internally at Constellium, and they get applied across the aerospace sector and are being adopted on many of the new space programs,” said Paul Smith, who leads the application engineering team for Constellium’s aerospace program. “We’re very proud of our participation in the Artemis program.”

“It’s exciting because not only are we going back to the lunar region for the first time in 50 years, also, we’re planning to establish a permanent presence there and use that as a steppingstone for Mars and so on,” Smith continued. “We’re happy to be part of this program.”

“I think many of us watched is that rocket took off and if you were like me, you had nervous anticipation and excitement about getting that rocket in the air, but knowing they had to make that journey around the moon,” McCallie said. “Then when that capsule did splash down safely, we saw the astronauts emerge, it was a bit of a sigh of relief.”

Justice, who served two terms as governor and is wrapping up his second year of a six-year term in the U.S. Senate, said the work of the Constellium employees on the Artemis project was a sign to the world to take West Virginia seriously.

“So many on the outside, they would never in the world give us a time of day ... and they thought of West Virginia as backward and maybe non-educated and dingy or whatever it may be,” Justice said. “In all this stuff, you’re seeing Artemis II take off, go around the moon, the astronauts splash down, everybody’s safe and healthy, and you have a feeling of unbelievable accomplishment.”

“I know you have to be really proud,” Justice continued. I want you to know that not only are you doing greatness here, but you’re doing way more greatness than just here. You’re really making things happen for all of us all across this unbelievable state. You’re making it happen every day ... And in all that, people on the outside that really question whether to give us a shot are now believing.”

Nearly 1,200 people work at Ravenswood’s Constellium plant, the largest employer in Jackson County and ranked as the top five manufacturer in West Virginia. The plant provides materiels for the commercial and military aerospace, armor, semiconductors, rail cars, shipping, motor vehicles, and other applications.