The Astronauts aboard Artemis-2 are preparing for a fly-by of the moon as part of the mission in space. The trip began with a ride to Earth orbit aboard NASA’s Alabama built new moon rocket called the “Space Launch System,” or SLS. Three of the Artemis astronauts are space veterans. But, none of the crew members flew aboard NASA’s space shuttle which uses solid rocket boosters for blastoff. The agency’s Alabama built “Space Launch System” rocket uses two “SRB’s” for the trip to Earth orbit. Space rookie Jeremy Hansen says it was really smooth.
“Well, I think probably one of the things that surprised all of us is when those solid rocket boosters actually lit and we left the pad,” he said. “There's just a moment of disbelief. And yeah, the fact that we launched it just it. It just totally takes you by surprise, even though you're expecting it, at least for me.”
Hansen is the rookie on the crew. Commander Reid Weisman and astronauts Christina Koch and Victor Glover have flown to the International Space Station. Weisman and Koch travelled to orbit aboard Russian built Soyuz capsules and Glover was on the first operational flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon craft. Both of those vehicles used liquid fueled engines. Koch says the SRB’s on her launch this week wasn’t what she expected.
“We all expected a really just dynamic ride, a lot of motion. We were prepared to potentially not being able to see telemetry, maybe even not being able to, you know, touch switches and it was very smooth,” Koch said.
The Artemis rocket also used a refurbished space shuttle engines from NASA’s last space shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, and a separate shuttle that carried the observation dome, or “cupola” to the International Space Station. The Artemis II astronauts also captured our blue planet’s brilliant beauty as they zoom ever closer to the moon.
NASA released the crew’s first downlinked images Friday, 1 1/2 days into the first astronaut moonshot in more than half a century. The first photo taken by commander Reid Wiseman shows a curved slice of Earth in one of the capsule’s windows. The second shows the entire globe with the oceans topped by swirling white tendrils of clouds. A green aurora even glows, according to NASA.
“It’s great to think that with the exception of our four friends, all of us are represented in this image," said NASA's Lakiesha Hawkins, an exploration systems leader. She added the mission was going well.
As of late Friday afternoon, Wiseman and his crew were more than 110,000 miles from Earth and were quickly gaining on the moon with another 150,000 miles to go. They should reach their destination on Monday.
The three Americans and one Canadian will swing around the moon in their Orion capsule, hang a U-turn and then head straight back home without stopping. They fired Orion's main engine
Thursday night that set them on their course. After Mission Control shifted the position of their capsule, the entire Earth complete with northern lights filled their windows.
“It was the most spectacular moment, and it paused all four of us in our tracks,” Wiseman said in a TV interview.
They're the first lunar travelers since Apollo 17 in 1972.
