Chicago-area company made equipment used on Artemis II mission to the moon

CARPENTERSVILLE, Ill. (WLS) -- A local company created the switches used by the Artemis II crew inside the Orion spacecraft craft used to steer and shift between manual and automated piloting systems.

It's a metal switch that looks simple from the eye, but they are highly engineered components that have been tested to be fail safe.

"These switches you cannot find on the wall that would turn on your light switch or on a coffee maker or a washing machine. These are switches that were specifically designed for this mission," Otto Senior Manager of Manufacturing Operations Ed Trowbridge said.

Otto Engineering is a a small, family-owned manufacturing company in Carpentersville.

Six years ago, it won a bid to design components for NASA.

"We're asked to design a series of 17 uniquely different switches that had to work in outer space. They always had to work. Sometimes they only needed to work once, but that means they got to make sure that they work," Owner Tom Roeser said.

The testing process for the switches took years, Otto employees worked with NASA engineers, experts and astronauts to get it right.

"We'll put it through vibration, thermal cycling and all these tests and we'll cycle it 5 thousand times," Throwbridge said.

For decades, Otto has been designing, manufacturing and selling controls and communications devices for aerospace and the military.

"It was founded by my father in the basement of our home in 1961 and he was a mechanical engineer," Roeser said.

Following in his father's mechanical engineering footsteps, Roeser is chairman of the company.

He grew Otto, to now over 500 employees. Roeser says each employee played a small part in yesterday's lift off; a proud moment for the whole company

"I didn't think about Otto, I thought about America and they got very proud and they thought about Otto," Roeser said.

Otto's mission with NASA is far from over. The company has an order to make more switches, the hope is the will be used to go to Mars someday.