Artemis II, NASA’s first crewed mission to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, is on track to make good on that promise.
As of 10 A.M. EDT on Friday, the mission’s Orion spacecraft is about 88,000 miles from Earth, 170,000 miles away from the moon and traveling around 4,260 miles per hour.
On Thursday the astronauts onboard—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen and Christina Koch—actually got some sleep. Then they performed a series of maneuvers that allowed them to leave Earth’s orbit and head to the moon.
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
The most crucial of these was the translunar injection (TLI) burn, which occurred at 7:49 P.M. EDT and lasted for about five minutes and 50 seconds, accelerating the spacecraft to 22,670 miles per hour. At the time, the spacecraft was just 115 miles above Earth.
This fuel burn sets Orion on a path around the moon called a free return trajectory, which essentially means the spacecraft will enter the moon’s gravitational influence (but won’t orbit our natural satellite) and will swing around its far side. That route also places Orion on track to return to Earth on the 10th day of the mission: April 10.
At a post-TLI press conference, Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for NASA's Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said that the burn appeared successful and that “from this point forward, the laws of orbital mechanics are going to carry our crew to the moon, around the far side and back to Earth.”
The astronauts also tried out the space capsule’s flywheel exercise machine—Wiseman’s movements managed to make the live feed of the Orion capsule appear to wobble. He said he felt it was a great cardio drill—but he developed a slight static charge.
“It is a really good piece of gear, and we can actually get a nice workout,” Wiseman said.
Aside from some likely welcome stress relief and a chance to move, such workouts are vital for the astronauts to stay healthy in the zero-g conditions of their capsule. The crew also tested Orion’s water dispenser.
Also on the docket for day two was figuring out how to use Artemis II’s toilet. Shortly after reaching Earth orbit, the astronauts saw a fault alarm for the facilities, but after troubleshooting by Koch, who dubbed herself the mission’s “space plumber,” it turned out there wasn’t enough water in the toilet’s pump, NASA officials said at the press conference.
Day three, April 3, will see the Orion spacecraft perform other moves to make sure it is on the right track to the moon while the crew members perform a series of demonstrations and tests. Glover, Koch and Hansen will do a CPR demo, and Wiseman and Glover are set to check out the mission’s medical kit, which includes, among other things, a thermometer, a blood pressure monitor and a stethoscope.
Koch will also test the capsule’s emergency communications system, beaming signals to NASA’s ground-based Deep Space Network, which is a huge array of radio antennas located at different places on Earth that allows for near-continuous communications with spacecraft.
“We got eight days of work ahead,” Glaze said on Thursday.