US Edition4 Astronauts Are Now on Their Path to the Moon. Here’s What Happens Next
The four astronauts will test communications, crew operations and heat-shield performance as Orion heads toward a record-setting lunar flyby, NASA said.
- On Thursday, the Orion spacecraft ignited its engine for 5 minutes and 50 seconds at 115 miles above Earth, placing four astronauts on a free-return trajectory toward the moon. This marks the first human departure from Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.
- NASA's Artemis II mission aims to return humans to deep space for the first time in more than five decades, carrying Commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The crew will conduct experiments while traveling farther than any humans before.
- Mission managers reconfigured Orion's reentry path to avoid a skip maneuver, creating a more favorable heating environment for the heat shield. This addresses performance issues discovered during the uncrewed Artemis I test flight in 2022.
- NASA plans daily broadcasts from the 16.5-foot-wide Orion capsule, with the first downlink occurring Thursday. The crew relies on the Deep Space Network—antennas in the United States, Spain, and Australia—to maintain contact in deep space.
- Day 6 will feature a sweeping lunar flyby allowing the crew to capture images of the moon's far side while surpassing the 1970 Apollo 13 record by 3,366 miles, reaching about 405,000 kilometers from Earth.
13 Articles
13 Articles
NASA Astronaut Victor Glover: Orion Spacecraft Pilot | Artemis II Moon Mission
NASA Astronaut Victor Glover: Orion Spacecraft Pilot | Artemis II Moon MissionArtemis II Pilot Victor Glover shares his excitement about getting to fly the Orion spacecraft manually during the Artemis II mission. After hours of practicing in a simulator, this will be the first time the Orion spacecraft will be flown by a human . . . in space! This test will be valuable for learning how the ship handles as NASA looks ahead to more complex mission…
Orion moonship fires up its engine to leave Earth behind
NASA’s Orion space capsule successfully fired its main engine today for a maneuver that sent the four astronauts of the Artemis 2 mission out of Earth orbit and onward to the moon. The translunar injection burn lasted five minutes and 50 seconds, and committed the spacecraft to a course that will result in a lunar flyby and a gravity-assisted U-turn on April 6. “Looks like a good burn,” capsule communicator Chris Birch said at Mission Control in…
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