The Artemis II crew is boarding Orion.
Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy are taking their seats atop the most powerful manned rocket ever built. They have trained for years for this moment, and now they are preparing to execute a mission that will take us back around the Moon and begin the next chapter of human space exploration.
The Orion spacecraft successfully separated from the upper stage of the rocket, and the "proximity operations" test is underway. The Artemis II astronauts are manually piloting Orion similarly to how they would if they were docking with another spacecraft.
NEW: NASA's Artemis II has successfully blasted off, launching toward the Moon for the first lunar voyage in 53 years.
Here is what to expect next:
- Mission is 10 total days.
- The crew will get 5000 miles from the Moon's surface.
- The crew will sleep in two four-hour periods.
- On Day 2, Orion engines will accelerate the spacecraft to escape velocity and send them toward the Moon.
- On Days 3-5, the crew will fine-tune the approach to the Moon.
- Day 6 is when the crew flies by the Moon. They will be about 250,000 miles from the Earth.
- Days 6-7, the crew will fine-tune their approach back to Earth.
- On Day 10, the crew will put on their proper suits and get ready for reentry.
- They will reenter Earth's atmosphere at 25,000 miles per hour.
- Two parachutes will slow the capsule to 17 miles per hour.
- They will splash down off the coast of San Diego, California.
Video: @GuyFieri
ARTEMIS II🚨: In the mission, the 4 astronauts will travel 400,000 km from Earth, which would be the farthest any human has ever gone in all of humanity.
For the first time in over 50 years, humans are Moonbound.
At 6:35 p.m. EDT (2235 UTC) NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft lifted off from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending four astronauts on a planned test flight around the Moon and back. https://t.co/0Q9ZB4IWVI
🚨#BREAKING: Watch incredible footage captured from passengers on an airliner above Florida, showing the exact moment the Artemis II mission lifts off carrying four astronauts on its journey around the Moon as they make history