{"id":10350,"date":"2023-08-08T23:14:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T15:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/artemis-2-astronauts-get-first-look-at-their-orion-moonship\/"},"modified":"2023-08-08T23:14:01","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T15:14:01","slug":"artemis-2-astronauts-get-first-look-at-their-orion-moonship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/artemis-2-astronauts-get-first-look-at-their-orion-moonship\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemis 2 astronauts get first look at their Orion moonship"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_63139\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-63139\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/20230808-Orion_Crew2_SFN.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"452\" class=\"size-full wp-image-63139\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/20230808-Orion_Crew2_SFN.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/20230808-Orion_Crew2_SFN-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-63139\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Artemis 2 crew, standing in from of their Artemis spacecraft, discusses their planned 2024 around-the-moon flight with reporters at the Kennedy Space Center. Left to right: commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Image: Adam Bernstein\/Spaceflight Now.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>NASA\u2019s four Artemis 2 astronauts, getting their first look at the Orion capsule that will carry them around the moon next year, said seeing the hardware first hand and meeting the men and women building the spacecraft brought home the reality of their historic mission.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s starting to feel very, very real,\u201d Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen told reporters  Tuesday, standing with his NASA crewmates in front of the Orion capsule. \u201cIt\u2019s not a dream. It\u2019s a program. It\u2019s real hardware.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYesterday, we spent a lot of time meeting other teams on site, and (seeing) just how much work there is to do, and how hard they\u2019re working. \u2026 They\u2019re grinding it out over the next year and a half or so to try and take us back to the moon for the first time in over 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hansen, Artemis 2 commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch were named to the crew in April, but their visit to the Kennedy Space Center Monday and Tuesday was their first chance to see their spacecraft.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Artemis 2 crew meet their ride to space\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jvTlHDlBFTI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we first stuck our heads in and you look around in there, you realize this can only be one thing, a spaceship,\u201d Koch said. \u201cNothing else looks like that, and that\u2019s exactly what it felt like. That\u2019s what gave me shivers. We were playing \u2018name that item,\u2019 honestly, we were looking around, we were trying to marry it up with everything we learned about in our technical classes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Said Wiseman: \u201cWe\u2019re fired up. It\u2019s a great day when you walk around the corner at the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout facility and there\u2019s your spacecraft that you\u2019re going to ride in, \u2018the ship,\u2019 as they call it (here). And we got we got to look inside and hang out and it was really quite fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The current schedule shows Wiseman and company launching in November 2024. They will not orbit or land on the moon, but instead will put the Orion capsule through its paces during three orbits of Earth, including one with a high point of 38,000 miles, before heading out on a free-return trajectory around the moon and back to a Pacific Ocean splashdown.<\/p>\n<p>NASA is still officially targeting December 2025 for the first actual lunar landing, when an Orion capsule will carry four astronauts to the moon. Two of them will board a waiting SpaceX lander, a variant of the company\u2019s Starship rocket, and descend to the surface. But it\u2019s an open question whether the lander will be ready in time.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_63143\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-63143\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/20230808-Jim_Free_2_SFN.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"452\" class=\"size-full wp-image-63143\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/20230808-Jim_Free_2_SFN.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/20230808-Jim_Free_2_SFN-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-63143\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jim Free, director of NASA\u2019s exploration division, updates reporters at a news conference on August 8, 2023. Image: Adam Bernstein\/Spaceflight Now.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Jim Free, director of NASA\u2019s exploration division, said the agency recently discussed the schedule with engineers at SpaceX\u2019s \u201cStarbase\u201d flight test facility near Boca Chica, Texas, where the company is gearing up for a second test flight of the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage. The first test flight on April 20 ended in failure, reaching an altitude of just 24 miles after multiple premature engine shutdowns.<\/p>\n<p>To get to the moon, the Starship lander will need to be robotically refueled in low-Earth orbit, requiring multiple Super Heavy-Starship \u201ctanker\u201d flights. Before NASA will know whether a 2025 astronaut landing is feasible, Free said SpaceX will need to launch enough successful flights to demonstrate reliability, carry out ship-to-ship refueling and then stage an unpiloted lunar landing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were at Starbase a couple of weeks ago, and really spent some time going through their major milestones to the Artemis 3 mission, which includes a (propellant) transfer mission  as well as the uncrewed demo,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll look at that and update around that in the near future. But what we\u2019re holding all the contractors to is that December of \u201925 date.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If the schedule slips out too far, \u201cwe may end up flying a different mission,\u201d he added. That presumably could mean a lunar orbit mission for Artemis 3 instead of a moon landing if the Starship isn\u2019t ready or some other major problem crops up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe may end up flying a different mission if we have these big (delays), we\u2019ve looked at can we can we do other missions if the possibility exists there,\u201d Free said. \u201cBut right now, we\u2019re still trying to look at their schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_63140\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-63140\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/20230808-Orion_Crew_Module_Artemis_II_SFN.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"452\" class=\"size-full wp-image-63140\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/20230808-Orion_Crew_Module_Artemis_II_SFN.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/20230808-Orion_Crew_Module_Artemis_II_SFN-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-63140\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Orion capsule for the Artemis 2 mission under going pre-launch preparations at the Kennedy Space Center. The capsule is surrounded by powerful loudspeakers for acoustic testing. Image: Adam Bernstein\/Spaceflight Now.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As for the Artemis 2 mission, Free said the Orion capsule, its European-built service module and the Space Launch System rocket are all on track for launch by the end of 2024. The pacing item, he said, is analysis of the heat shield that protected the Artemis 1 Orion during its high-speed return to Earth after an unpiloted maiden test flight last December.<\/p>\n<p>The heat shield experienced uneven charring and erosion during its high-temperature re-entry and while the Orion capsule was not damaged, engineers are carrying out tests to better understand why the heat shield did not behave as expected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s definitely the biggest open issue,\u201d Free said. But, he added, \u201cI think we\u2019re on a path to that root cause with the final disposition in April.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously, we\u2019re going to make the right decision to keep them safe,\u201d he said. \u201cIf that decision is we have to do something drastic, then we\u2019ll do that. But right now, we\u2019re on a path to get to the root cause, and then we\u2019ll make the final determination from there. \u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Artemis 2 crew, standing in from of their Artemis spacecraft, discusses their planned 2024 around-the-moon flight with reporters at the Kennedy Space Center. Left to right: commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Image: Adam Bernstein\/Spaceflight Now. NASA\u2019s four Artemis 2 astronauts, getting their first look at the Orion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[783],"class_list":["post-10350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-artemis-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10350"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}