Artemis II pilot thanks NASA for letting him fly Orion manually: ‘I’m still amazed by that confidence’
MORRISON, Colo. — The Artemis II crew that orbited the Moon earlier this year has made a full circle, landing in a distinctive spot on Earth visually reminiscent of both the Moon and Mars.
On August 3, the expansive and stunning Red Rocks Amphitheater served as an inoculation of near-term nostalgia and sincere congratulations to the crew on Artemis II’s remarkable journey. 10 day assignment It started on April 1 of this yearHe flew Around the moon and backand Scattered in the Pacific Ocean On April 10th. This was the first manned spaceflight outside low Earth orbit in 53 years.
About 8,500 people crowded into the open space at Red Rocks to make eye contact with astronauts Reed Wiseman, the commander, Victor Glover, the pilot, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen as mission specialists — all clearly awestruck by the crowd’s reaction. The event was a broader post-flight campaign for the quartet, and also highlighted the region’s contributions to the stay of Artemis II. The STEM Festival was also part of the early morning event.
Distinctive location
“I can’t imagine a more popular location on Earth to hear about a trip to the moon,” said Robert Lightfoot, president of Lockheed Martin Aerospace and a prime aerospace contractor for the Artemis program. He told the gathered crowd that there are hundreds of suppliers throughout the rocky mountain region, and more than 10,000 employees, supporting the Artemis II mission.
Leadership from industry prime contractors including Lockheed Martin, Amentum, Boeing, L3 Harris and Northrop Grumman participated in the salute for the Artemis II flight.
“Here in Colorado, we are one mile from space,” Colorado Governor Jared Polis noted. “Keep reaching for the stars,” he added.
“This is a truly revolutionary and exciting time for NASA and the American space program,” Lori Glaze, NASA’s associate administrator for the Human Spaceflight Directorate, said today. “We will reach further. We will dream bigger. We will ensure America’s leadership in deep space exploration and discovery.”
What’s next?
In a press discussion prior to the event, Space.com asked Artemis II crew members how their Orion spacecraft, called Integrity, will perform and how it will help the upcoming crewed Artemis III flight into Earth orbit.
“It handled very well,” said Reed Wiseman, commander of Artemis II. “Just from habitability, I think that’s where we learned the most, putting four humans in the spacecraft. We knew the machine was technically competent and capable of getting to the moon… Artemis taught us that,” he told Space.com.
“We had some things related to the heat shield that we needed to solve on Artemis II,” Weissman said. “But putting the four of us out there, seeing how the life support system works and how it’s used to inhabit, eat, live, work, and sleep out there, we certainly learned a lot from what we delivered to Artemis III.”
Feeling grateful
The Red Rock Artemis II stage event featured the four Artemis II crew members facing off against a large crowd of supportive spectators. More than 1,300 questions were asked by attendees.
The entrance of the Artemis II crew is marked with loud shots of the craft Artemis I fired It was recorded with music from Metallica’s song “Fuel”.
“The biggest thing this mission has given us is an overwhelming feeling of gratitude,” Glover said. “I think we have to figure out how to continue this.”
For Christina Koch, the Red Rocks Gathering prompted a call and response for the public to participate. “I say moon, you say joy,” to which the crowd immediately responded three times. She also asked the audience to raise their thumbs in the air. “From a distance, you could cover the entire Earth with your thumb. That’s how small it was for us, but what you knew was that it was home,” she said.
Proximity operations
Victor Glover, pilot of Artemis II, focused on A Demonstration of proximity operations during flight. This entails the crew guiding the spacecraft through a series of controlled approach and retraction maneuvers using the separate upper stage, a temporary cryogenic propulsion stage, as a reference target.
“That’s when we had the opportunity to fly the spacecraft manually, not just with computers,” Glover told Space.com. “Actually, we get to fly. One of the most amazing aspects of it is looking out the window or through the cameras there [cockpit] “It is presented to determine how far we are from the higher stage,” he explained.
This mission used all four sets of eyes on Orion, Glover said. “We didn’t have radar, or any other type of digital ranging system between us and that vehicle,” he said. “But the Artemis II team trusted us to fly that way. I’m still impressed by that trust, and it flew great.”
Antarctic ambitions
NASA’s Glaze added that Artemis III is scheduled to fly sometime in mid-2027.
“We’ll be demonstrating docking with one or both of our landers, which are… Blue Origin and the SpaceX lander. They’ve got some demo versions that they’re making now. “We’re working on this mission to prove that we can succeed, not just moving back and forth toward the goal, but actually coming together and doing this difficult mission.”
Space.com pressed Glaze on the term “beta versions” of the Blue Origin and SpaceX lunar landers.
Will the accuracy of those demonstrations be good enough to greenlight an actual human landing on the moon on the Artemis IV mission?
“I do,” replied Glaze. “We are working hard with each of our lander providers on developing experimental versions of their lander that we will dock with […] “To make sure that the docking systems are the same docking system that we will be working with when we go for a landing mission,” she said.
“That’s one of the main risks,” Glaze said. “This allows us to limit that risk and work through at least this part of the mission. So when we do a landing mission, we’ve got that part of the way out of the way.”
“We’ve learned the lessons from those docking demonstrations. Then, really focusing on all the risks associated with landing on the moon…we can really focus our efforts there.”
However, according to Space.com sources, there is an active debate about whether the Moon’s south pole is a suitable location for the first human landing for the Artemis program. In fact, Glover, the pilot of Artemis II, recently stated that he believes there is a need to be realistic and pragmatic We gradually make our way to the South Pole site Instead of landing there first.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations with each of our lander vendors,” Glaze replied. “The designs they have are for Antarctica.” “We are working closely with them on these designs. We are very focused on landing in Antarctica.”
Over the moon
Canadian Artemis II mission specialist, Jeremy HansenHe told the audience that their journey into space was a very human experience for the four crew members, “But we came to see you and feel you. You shared the joy of the moon.”
Hansen emphasized the international character of Artemis II. “It was one of those intentional contributions to the planet,” he said, because billions of us on Earth have to join forces. “We have to work together. We can no longer believe that our final status does not work together. This is unacceptable. We have to cooperate,” he said.
When a young audience member asked him what items they took during their trip around the moon, mission specialist Koch replied: “I took handwritten letters that I had never read before from my family, and also a small statue of a very tall cow. My father had the idea of making a cow jump over the moon.”
