Artemis II astronauts<\/a> tidied up their lunar cruiser for the upcoming \u201cfireball\u201d return and reflected on their historic journey around the moon, describing it as surreal and profound.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn-channels-pixel.ex.co\/events\/0012000001fxZm9AAE?integrationType=DEFAULT&template=design%2Farticle%2Fplatypus_two_column.tpl\")
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As the next-to-last day of their flight dawned Thursday, humanity’s first lunar explorers in more than half a century were less than 150,000 miles (240,000 kilometers) from home with the odometer clicking down.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe have to get back. There\u2019s so much data that you\u2019ve seen already, but all the good stuff is coming back with us. There are so many more pictures, so many more stories,” said pilot Victor Glover, adding that “riding a fireball through the atmosphere is profound as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being cut off from all of humanity for nearly an hour while behind the moon was especially \u201csurreal,\u201d according to commander Reid Wiseman.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot that our brains have to process … and it is a true gift,” Wiseman said late Wednesday during the crew’s first news conference since before liftoff.<\/p>\n
While out of contact behind the moon Monday, Wiseman, Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen became the most distant humans ever, clocking in at a record 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers) from Earth before heading back. As they emerged from behind the moon, they experienced a wondrous total solar eclipse as the orb blocked the sun from their perspective.<\/p>\n
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Launching from Florida on April 1 diminished the amount of illumination on the lunar far side, Glover noted, but the eclipse was the consolation prize \u201cand it was one of the greatest gifts.\u201d<\/p>\n
While acknowledging anxiety over Friday’s return, NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya said the crew’s “expressions of love and devotion to family\u201d have warmed hearts worldwide and served as \u201ca great example of why we go and do these missions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201dIf you can\u2019t take love to the stars, then what are we doing?” he said. “That\u2019s why we send humans instead of robots sometimes, that\u2019s why we have that firsthand witness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friday’s reentry and Pacific splashdown off the coast of San Diego \u2014 as dynamic and dangerous as liftoff \u2014 now topped everyone’s minds. The recovery ship, USS John P. Murtha, was already at sea, with a squadron of military planes and helicopters poised to join the operation.<\/p>\n
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It’s the first time that NASA and the Defense Department have teamed up for a lunar crew’s reentry since Apollo 17 in 1972. Their Orion capsule will come screaming back, hitting the atmosphere at a predicted 34,965 feet (10,657 meters) per second \u2014 or 23,840 mph (38,367 kph) \u2014 not a record but still mind-bogglingly fast.<\/p>\n
Flight director Jeff Radigan said the capsule must nail the reentry angle within a single degree.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s not beat around the bush. We have to hit that angle correctly \u2014 otherwise we\u2019re not going to have a successful reentry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mission Control will be paying close attention to how the capsule’s heat shield holds up. During the only other Orion test flight to the moon \u2014 in 2022 without a crew \u2014 the heat shield suffered considerably more damage than expected from the 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius) of reentry.<\/p>\n
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Instead of replacing Artemis II’s heat shield, which would have forced another lengthy delay, NASA tweaked the capsule’s descent through the atmosphere to reduce the blisteringly hot exposure. Next year’s Artemis III and beyond will fly with redesigned heat shields.<\/p>\n
Artemis III will see astronauts practice docking their capsule with a lunar lander or two in orbit around Earth. Artemis IV in 2028 will attempt to land two astronauts near the moon’s south pole, setting the stage for what NASA hopes will be a sustainable lunar base.<\/p>\n
NASA officials have been loath to provide their risk assessment numbers for the nearly 10-day mission, acknowledging launch and entry as the biggest threats.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re down to the wire now,\u201d said NASA’s Lakiesha Hawkins. “We\u2019re down to the end of the mission, and obviously getting the crew back home and getting them landed safely, is a significant part of the risk that\u2019s still in front of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew captured this view the Moon and Earth are shown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[88019,183289,29794,85,46,183290,29795,183291,155889,174699,174697,174696,174698,174700,29796,29629,141,7195],"class_list":{"0":"post-383964","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-amit-kshatriya","9":"tag-artemis-moon-astronauts-splashdown","10":"tag-christina-koch","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-jeff-radigan","14":"tag-jeremy-hansen","15":"tag-john-murtha","16":"tag-package-100024-ap-online","17":"tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","18":"tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","19":"tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news","20":"tag-product-32539-ap-online-science-news","21":"tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","22":"tag-reid-wiseman","23":"tag-san-diego","24":"tag-science","25":"tag-victor-glover"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}