NASA’s historic Artemis II mission to the moon launched Wednesday evening, taking four astronauts into Earth's orbit and on a path toward the world's first crewed lunar mission in a generation, beginning a journey into remarkable, if somewhat familiar, territory.
Artemis II launched from Launch Pad 39B at 5.35 p.m. Central Timeat the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Houston’s Johnson Space Center nowmanages almost the entirety of the missionuntil the moment the spacecraft returns to Earth off the coast of San Diego.
Four astronauts — NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch; and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen — are set to spend 10 days in space, orbiting the Earth once before flying to the moon, around it and back. The mission marks the first time in more than 50 years that humans are attempting to travel to the moon.
Minutes into the flight, after the Orion spacecraft had separated from its rockets, Orion, which houses the four astronauts, appeared to be following its coordinated plan.
The rockets were successfully fueled up by the early afternoon, filling the rockets with hundreds of thousands of gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen.
After much of the countdown went without a hitch, NASA found an issue with a safety system about an hour and a half prior to the beginning of the launch window.
In the event of an emergency where a rocket is out of control, the flight termination system allows engineers to send a signal to destroy the rocket to protect public safety. Without assurance that the system works, NASA would have scrubbed the mission.
Minutes after discovering the issue, though, NASA indicated it had resolved the issue, which did not significantly impact the countdown.
Within the first couple hours of the flight, Artemis II will conduct several maneuvers, firing up its propellant systems to move the spacecraft. The first maneuver will come 49 minutes into the flight, called the "perigee raise maneuver," which will bring the Orion into a safe, low Earth orbit. Just under two hours into the flight, the "apogee raise burn" will move Orion into a high Earth orbit, in which it will remain until shooting for the moon.
Artemis II will spend about a day orbiting the Earth, in order to remain relatively close by in case of any emergency, should the crew need to return to the Earth. By late in the day Friday, about 24 hours into the mission, Artemis II will conduct its "translunar injection burn," which will propel the spacecraft out of the Earth's orbit and toward the moon.
Houston Public Mediawill be reporting on the mission in its entirety, including important updates, previews, and explanations. NASA also plans to cover the missionin its entirety, including a 24/7 livestream of the mission and continuous views from the Orion spacecraft, where thefour astronautson the mission will be.
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