The four Artemis astronauts circling Earth are awaiting the green light from NASA to head for the Moon and carry out the first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years.
The enormous orange-and-white Space Launch System (SLS) rocket blasted off flawlessly from Kennedy Space Center in Florida yesterday for the long-anticipated journey around the Moon.
The astronauts – Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen – spent their first hours in space performing checks and troubleshooting minor problems on their Orion capsule – including a communications issue and a malfunctioning toilet.
Before getting a few hours of sleep, they ignited the spacecraft’s main engine to place it in a high Earth orbit, the US space agency said.
NASA’s mission management team will meet later to perform an assessment of the spacecraft’s performance and decide whether to give the go-ahead for the astronauts to begin their three-day voyage toward the Moon.
The “go/no go” decision for the translunar injection burn (TLI) is scheduled for 7.07pm Eastern Time (00.07 Irish time).
Assuming everything checks out, the TLI that will send the astronauts on their way is scheduled for 25 minutes later.
Orion is to loop around the Moon as part of the ten-day Artemis II mission aimed at paving the way for a Moon landing in 2028.
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Watch: NASA rocket launches from Florida for Artemis II mission
Astronauts strapped in for historic US lunar launch
‘Brave astronauts’
US President Donald Trump praised “our brave astronauts” at the top of his televised address yesterday evening on the war against Iran, calling the launch “quite something”.
Before their rest period, the astronauts performed various checks to ensure the reliability and safety of a spacecraft that has never carried humans before.
NASA said it carried out “proximity operations,” which tested how the Orion capsule can move relative to another spacecraft, and manoeuvres that mimic what would be needed to dock with a lunar lander.
Among the issues it identified was a “controller issue with the toilet when they spun it up,” said Amit Kshatriya, NASA’s associate administrator.
NASA head Jared Isaacman said a communications problem had been resolved and the astronauts were “in great spirits”.
“NASA is back in the business of sending people to the Moon,” he said.
The mission marks a series of historic accomplishments: sending the first person of colour, the first woman and the first non-American on a lunar mission.
If all proceeds smoothly, the astronauts will set a record by venturing farther from Earth than any human before.
It is also the inaugural crewed flight of SLS, NASA’s new lunar rocket.
SLS is designed to allow the US to repeatedly return to the Moon with the goal of establishing a permanent base that will offer a platform for further exploration.
It was meant to take off as early as February after years of delays and massive cost overruns.
But repeated setbacks stalled it and even necessitated rolling the rocket back to its hangar for repairs.
Compete with China
The current era of American lunar investment has frequently been portrayed as an effort to compete with China, which aims to land humans on the Moon by 2030.
During a post-launch briefing, Mr Isaacman said competition was “a great way to mobilise the resources of a nation”.
“Competition can be a good thing,” he said. “And we certainly have competition now.”
The Artemis programme has come under pressure from Mr Trump, who has pushed its pace with the hope that boots will hit the lunar surface before his second term ends in early 2029.
But the projected date of 2028 for a landing has raised eyebrows among some experts, in part because Washington is relying heavily on the private sector’s technological headway.
‘Once in a lifetime experience’
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Scientist and Space Writer Dr Niamh Shaw watched last night’s Moon launch from Cape Canaveral.
She said it was a once in a lifetime experience that was not like any launches she had previously seen.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Six One News, she said: “The most distinctive thing was it just hits you in your chest, you could feel the vibrations in your chest, and then it went down to your feet.
“It was just incredible.”
She said that Artemis II is “part of the beginning of an infrastructure where they intend to build a research station on the Moon”.
“This mission is testing the living quarters, the Orion Capsule. Artemis I was about the rocket…Artemis III is about the Lander – how are we going to get people to land on the Moon. And if that all goes well, Artemis IV, as they say, footprints and flags on the Moon,” she said.
It was anticipated that the two future missions would take place next year and in 2028, which she described as a “very ambitious plan”.
“You never know, people who work in the space sector, they make the impossible possible,” Dr Shaw said.