Tag: Artemis II
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Here’s what to expect from the fiery, 14-minute return of Artemis II
Death, taxes, and the gravitationally bound return of the Artemis II mission on Friday evening. These are the only certainties in life. Even if the four astronauts on board the Orion spacecraft discovered a serious flaw in their spacecraft today—and to be clear, from recent images reviewed by NASA experts, everything looks just fine—there is…
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The gravity of their experience hasn’t quite set in for the Artemis II astronauts
On the home stretch of their nine-day mission, the four astronauts flying aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft are just beginning to reflect on their experience of flying beyond the Moon. Their memories of Monday’s encounter with the Moon are still fresh as they return to Earth, heading for reentry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on…
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Artemis II returns to Earth after historic 10-day mission around the Moon
After 10 days, over 800,000 km traveled, and a historic flyby of the Moon, Artemis II returned to Earth on Friday evening. Orion CM-003 Integrity, which served as the home for the mission’s four-person crew since April 1, reentered Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean before ultimately splashing down off the coast of San Diego,…
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The Moon is already on Google Maps—did Artemis II really tell us anything new?
The data pipeline from NASA’s Artemis II mission opened to full blast a few hours after looping behind the far side of the Moon on Monday night, when the Orion spacecraft established a laser communications link with a receiving station back on Earth. A cache of high-resolution images began streaming down through this connection. NASA…
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Astronauts set distance record, revealing the Moon as a place to be explored
After staring at the Moon for almost eight hours Monday, the commander of NASA’s Artemis II mission finally ran out of ways to describe what he was seeing. “No matter how long we look at this, our brains are not processing this image in front of us. It is absolutely spectacular, surreal,” said Reid Wiseman,…
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Artemis II breaks record, conducts lunar flyby
Orion spacecraft Integrity, carrying astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen, successfully passed behind the Moon on Flight Day 6 of the Artemis II mission, losing communications with Earth for approximately 40 minutes while the crew observed spectacular, never-before-seen views of the lunar surface with human eyes. The milestone moment also included…
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As Artemis II zooms to the Moon, everything seems to be going swimmingly
As the Artemis II lunar mission moved into its third day on Friday, and with the spacecraft’s big engine firing behind it, the four astronauts on board had a little more downtime. So the four crew members—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen—had their first opportunities to speak with their families at length…
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Orion Spacecraft Races Toward Historic Lunar Flyby in Artemis II Mission
As NASA’s Artemis II mission enters its critical mid-flight phase, the Orion spacecraft—carrying the first crewed mission beyond low-Earth orbit in more than half a century—is steadily heading toward the Moon for a precisely timed lunar flyby on Monday, April 6. Launched on April 1, 2026, aboard SLS from KSC’s 39B, the four-person crew has…
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Artemis II, NASA’s boldest mission in generations, launches crew to the Moon
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.—Three Americans and one Canadian launched into orbit from Florida’s Space Coast on Wednesday, flying the most powerful rocket ridden by humans on the first leg of a nine-day voyage around the Moon. Perched atop the 322-foot-tall (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket, the four astronauts lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center…
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Artemis II Orion performs TLI Burn — Now headed to the Moon
In a historic milestone more than 50 years in the making, NASA’s Orion spacecraft Integrity has successfully performed its trans-lunar injection (TLI) burn, departing its high elliptical Earth orbit and setting course for the Moon. The roughly six-minute firing of the European Service Module’s AJ10 engine accelerated the crew of four—NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman (commander),…