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The Artemis II mission launched successfully from the John F Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, United States around 6:35 pm EDT April 1 (4:05 am IST April 2). Four astronauts aboard National Aeronautical and Space Administration’s (NASA) Orion spacecraft named Integrity, launched with the help of the Space Launch System (SLS), will attempt the first crewed test flyby of the Moon after more than 50 years.
In fact, if everything goes as planned, the crew comprising of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen will be flying farthest from Earth than any mission before and setting their eyes on parts of the Moon that no human eyes have seen before.
NASA’s last Moon mission was the Apollo 17 mission launched on December 7, 1972. The Artemis II mission is the first test mission for both the SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft and will last for around 10 days.
“As the first crewed mission of NASA’s Artemis program, among its objectives, the flight will demonstrate life support systems for the first time with crew and lay the foundation for an enduring presence on the Moon ahead of future missions to Mars,” according to the NASA website.
Around 49 minutes into the flight, the SLS rocket’s upper stage fired to put the Orion spacecraft into an elliptical orbit around the Earth. A second stage firing put the spacecraft in high earth orbit around 43,730 miles (70,377 km) above the surface of the Earth. The Orion spacecraft deployed its solar array wings after reaching space to take energy directly from the Sun and the transition from launch to flight mode is complete.
Around five hours after the launch, the crew has successfully demonstrated proximity operations with the Orion spacecraft which tests its capabilities to manoeuvre close to another spacecraft. This was one of the mission’s earliest objectives. A perigee raise manoeuvre and an apogee raise burn operations have also been completed by the crew refining the spacecraft’s orbit around the Earth. The crew also successfully troubleshooted Orion’s toilet.
The testing of systems will go on for another 24 hours before the next stage of the mission. “If all systems remain healthy, mission controllers will give Orion’s European-built service module a command to conduct the translunar injection burn on Thursday, April 2,” according to the NASA website. “This move is an approximately six-minute firing to send the spacecraft on a trajectory that will simultaneously carry crew around the Moon, while also harnessing lunar gravity to slingshot them back to Earth.”
The first planned lunar flyby in more than five decades is scheduled for April 6 when the astronauts will take photographs and provide observations of the Moon’s surface, especially the far side, parts of which no human has seen before.
“Although the lunar far side will only be partially illuminated during the flyby, the conditions should create shadows that stretch across the surface, enhancing relief and revealing depth, ridges, slopes and crater rims that are often difficult to detect under full illumination,” according to NASA.
“Over the next 10 days, Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy will put Orion through its paces so the crews who follow them can go to the Moon’s surface with confidence. We are one mission into a long campaign, and the work ahead of us is greater than the work behind us,” said NASA associate administrator Amit Kshatriya.
“As part of Golden Age of innovation and exploration, NASA will send Artemis astronauts on increasingly difficult missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build on our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars”, wrote NASA on its website.