Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen and his crew mates are now in space but they aren’t heading to the moon just yet.
The roughly 10-day mission will ultimately carry the crew and their Orion capsule around the far side of the moon, but before that happens they are spending approximately 24 hours in a long orbit around Earth to check out their spacecraft and to rest for the bigger journey ahead.
Takeoff and technical glitches
For the astronauts on board and flight controllers on the ground, the mission got underway soon after lift off at 6:35 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
The Artemis II mission's Orion capsule leaves Earth, backlit by the sun as a crescent, shown in a still image from video on April 2.NASA TV/Reuters
By 8:30 p.m. they had already gone through the second-stage engine burns that put them on their current trajectory around Earth. The capsule deployed its solar panels to generate power for the duration of the mission.
The crew also experienced their first technical glitches of the mission.
The first was a temporary communication failure that prevented their responses from reaching mission control.
Another was a problem with the electronic controls for the onboard toilet. A few hours later that evening NASA confirmed that the problem was resolved.
Astronauts perform docking operation with capsule
Also on Wednesday evening, pilot Victor Glover and commander Reid Wiseman took control of the capsule – a first for Orion –and demonstrated its performance in a simulated docking operation.
At this point they had separated from but were still travelling with the spent upper stage of their rocket, called the ICPS.
During the demonstration, the Orion capsule came within 10 metres of the ICPS under manual control.
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Col. Hansen and mission specialist Christina Koch played supporting roles during the operation, including extra eyes on the booster.
The results of the test will be applied to the next mission, Artemis III, during which the capsule will attempt to dock with one or more test lunar landers in orbit.
The astronauts on Artemis II from left to right are Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch.Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Astronauts sleep and exercise before next phase
By Thursday morning the crew had the first of two sleep periods with an engine maneuver.
Later on Thursday’s agenda, Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover will set up the capsule’s exercise device, called the flywheel – which works like a compact version of a rowing machine.
Both Ms. Koch and Col. Hansen are scheduled for exercise today – a first test of the equipment in space and in the confined quarters of a space capsule occupied by four people.
Translunar injection burn will take crew to the moon
The main focus on the Thursday is preparing for the “translunar injection burn,” the engine firing that will send them out toward the moon.
If all is going well, this is expected to occur at about 8:12 p.m. ET.
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