AMSOIL Supported the Artemis II Lunar Mission

April 15, 2026  ·  Vyscocity

On April 10, 2026, four astronauts returned from the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. AMSOIL — the same brand carried by Vyscocity — developed a specialized fluid used throughout the Orion spacecraft that brought them home.

The Artemis II Mission

Artemis II launched April 1, 2026, from Kennedy Space Center aboard NASA's Space Launch System rocket. The crew of four — Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen — completed a free-return lunar flyby before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean southwest of San Diego at 8:07 p.m. EDT on April 10.

The mission lasted just under ten days and covered 694,481 miles. At its farthest point, the crew was 252,756 miles from Earth — farther than any human has traveled since the Apollo 17 crew in December 1972. They named the Orion capsule Integrity.

Artemis II was a test flight, not a landing. Its purpose was to validate the Orion spacecraft and its systems in the deep-space environment with a live crew before committing to a lunar surface mission. Artemis III — the mission targeting an actual lunar landing — follows, currently scheduled for 2027. The stakes for Artemis II were high: a known heat shield issue from the uncrewed Artemis I flight required close monitoring throughout re-entry. The crew emerged safely, and NASA declared the path to the surface open.

AMSOIL's Role

On the day of splashdown, AMSOIL's official corporate account confirmed the company's involvement in the mission directly:

The exact formulation is not public. Aerospace partnerships at this level rarely disclose technical details, and for good reason — the intellectual property involved in engineering fluids for crewed spacecraft is significant. What is disclosed is enough: NASA's engineering team worked with AMSOIL's engineers to develop a mission-critical fluid for a crewed lunar spacecraft. That is not a marketing partnership. That is an engineering engagement.

Crewed spaceflight sets requirements that eliminate almost every lubricant and fluid on the market. The fluid must perform across extreme temperature swings — from the cold of deep space to the heat of re-entry system exposure. It must resist outgassing in near-vacuum conditions, meaning it cannot evaporate or off-gas in ways that contaminate sensitive instruments or optics. It must maintain its properties without degradation over the full mission duration, with no opportunity for servicing or replacement. AMSOIL met that bar for Artemis II.

The Engineering Foundation

None of this is accidental. AMSOIL was built from aerospace engineering from the beginning.

The company was founded by Al Amatuzio, a jet fighter squadron commander with the U.S. Air Force. His background was not in automotive lubrication — it was in aviation, where synthetic fluids had been standard for years due to their superior performance over conventional oils in temperature extremes. Amatuzio applied those principles to automotive applications. In 1972, AMSOIL's 10W-40 Synthetic Motor Oil became the first synthetic motor oil in the world to meet American Petroleum Institute service requirements. The automotive industry followed decades later.

The aerospace connection deepened in July 2024 when AMSOIL acquired Aerospace Lubricants, a Columbus, Ohio-based specialty manufacturer founded in 1973. Aerospace Lubricants produces greases and specialty fluids for defense systems, major aircraft manufacturers, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and spacecraft applications. The company now operates as an independent AMSOIL subsidiary. AMSOIL Chairman and CEO Alan Amatuzio described the acquisition as an investment in grease formulation and production capacity that would generate value for both Aerospace and AMSOIL customers.

Between the founding philosophy, the 1972 breakthrough, and the 2024 acquisition, AMSOIL's aerospace credentials are not a recent addition to the brand story. They are the origin of it.

What This Means for Automotive and Commercial Applications

The engineering that qualifies a fluid for crewed spaceflight does not stay in a laboratory. The research and testing that goes into producing fluids capable of operating in deep-space conditions — thermal stability, film strength, resistance to oxidation, controlled viscosity across extreme temperature ranges — informs how AMSOIL engineers every product in the commercial lineup.

This is visible in the performance data. AMSOIL Signature Series 0W-20 has demonstrated 47% more engine wear protection than the industry standard in independent testing. AMSOIL DOMINATOR racing oil provides 50% more film thickness than a conventional 15W-40 under high-load conditions. Signature Series has shown twice the rust protection of Shell Rotella T4 and Mobil Delvac in controlled testing. These are not projections. They are results from measurable tests conducted under controlled conditions.

Extended drain intervals — 25,000 miles or one year for Signature Series in passenger car applications — are possible because the base chemistry is stable enough to resist the degradation mechanisms that force conventional oils into shorter drain cycles. That stability comes from the same engineering discipline that produces fluids for spacecraft and defense systems.

The brand that supplied fluid technology for the Artemis II mission is the same brand in the products available through Vyscocity. That connection is not incidental — it is the point.

Sources: AMSOIL INC on X, April 10, 2026  ·  NASA Artemis II mission documentation  ·  AMSOIL Aerospace Lubricants acquisition, July 2024