The owner of a small Sacramento custom aerospace machine shop that's made parts for more than 90 space missions will be at the lunar mission launch Monday of NASA’s Artemis 1, a rocket system for which it made more than 250 parts.
Tecma Co. was founded in Sacramento in 1957. It specializes in machining complex parts out of rare alloys for the aerospace industry.
“I have never been invited to a launch before. I never even had it on a bucket list,” said Sonia Susac, president of Tecma, which was founded by her father and another machinist.
Tecma was started during the space race, as a machine-shop subcontractor to contractors including the Rancho Cordova-based predecessor to Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc.
Susac said she thinks one of the reasons Tecma was invited to the launch was because Aerojet Rocketdyne (NYSE: AJRD) picked Tecma as its APEX Distinguished Supplier of the Year in 2021. Tecma, a woman-owned business, has also won several awards over the years from the Small Business Administration.
Moon missions are nothing new for Tecma, Susac said. Some of the components and parts that it made in the 1960s are still on the moon.
“It’s one thing to see the launch in pictures,” she said. “I get to feel it launch. It’s a nice legacy for me taking over my father’s company.”
There should be some shaking going on. NASA said this is the most powerful rocket it has ever launched.
The Artemis mission will be launched on NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, a heavy-lift launch vehicle that is topped by a NASA Orion spacecraft. The vehicle is massive, 322 feet tall and 5.8 million pounds, according to NASA, which has projected that it will spend $93 billion on the Artemis program through 2025.
Tecma has 15 employees. It tends to work on complex parts with exacting tolerances made of exotic metals and alloys that can perform in the intense heat and intense cold environments of space. It also performs defense contract work.
Contractors on the Artemis project include El Segundo-based Aerojet Rocketdyne, Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC), Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) and United Launch Alliance LLC, among others. There are more than 700 suppliers on the project, Susac said.
“It is just amazing how much is involved in this effort,” she said.
The Artemis system can lift 95 tons to low-Earth orbit, and later missions will be able to send 27 tons of equipment to the moon. The first Artemis test mission will be an uncrewed lunar flyby over about 42 days. The second mission will include astronauts. The third mission will have astronauts again land on the lunar surface for the first time since Saturn V in 1972.
The Artemis Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft are currently staged on the launchpad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida poised for a launch Monday morning, weather permitting. Unlike some of the smaller rockets made by SpaceX, which return the rockets for reuse, the Artemis system is fully expended with every launch.
