But until the astronauts are home safe, it\u2019s too early to talk about success, Nasa\u2019s associate administrator Amit Kshatriya said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we can start celebrating is when we have a crew safely in the medbay of the ship,\u201d the high-ranking official said. \u201cThat\u2019s really when we can allow the emotions to take over and, you know, start talking about success.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to have the crew home before we do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The astronauts sent mesmerising photos taken from the far side of the moon. Photo \/ Nasa<\/p>\n
Vital heat shield<\/p>\n
The stakes are particularly high given concerns that arose during Artemis 1, a 2022 uncrewed test flight to the moon and back, when the Orion heat shield eroded in unexpected ways.<\/p>\n
The heat shield is vital: During their re-entry, the spacecraft will reach maximum speeds approaching 35 times the speed of sound, and face searing temperatures around half as hot as the surface of the Sun.<\/p>\n
The heat shield is meant to slowly erode – \u201cablate,\u201d as Nasa puts it – to protect the capsule, a process that during Artemis 1 was disrupted.<\/p>\n
Even Nasa concedes the crucial shield remains flawed. But it determined that had astronauts been on board during Artemis I, they would have survived.<\/p>\n
To minimise risks, Nasa has shifted the re-entry path they used in the uncrewed test mission, after determining it had played a role in the complications.<\/p>\n
The astronauts will come back at a steeper and shorter trajectory, which Nasa officials in discussion with the astronauts concluded they were comfortable with.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have high confidence in the system and the heat shield and the parachutes and the recovery systems we put together,\u201d Kshatriya said. \u201cThe engineering supports it, the Artemis 1 flight data supports it. All of our ground test supports it. Our analysis supports it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe crew is going to put their lives behind that confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the heat shield situation has drawn uneasy comparisons to the Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters of 1986 and 2003 respectively, when astronauts died after warning signs were set aside.<\/p>\n
Asked later about stress levels on the ground, Nasa\u2019s associate administrator said \u201cit\u2019s impossible to say you don\u2019t have any irrational fears left\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I would tell you, I don\u2019t have any rational fears about what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joy and anxiety<\/p>\n
Nasa said loved ones of the astronauts will be watching the return from Houston\u2019s mission control.<\/p>\n
Catherine Hansen, the wife of astronaut Jeremy, told AFP that \u201cit has been a very emotional week\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of happiness and excitement, a lot of joy,\u201d she said, but also \u201csome anxiety and some wanting to get him home safely.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second phase of the Artemis programme was a test mission to verify the reliability of the Orion capsule, which before now had not carried humans.<\/p>\n
It was also a voyage marked by historic achievements: Glover was the first person of colour to fly around the moon, Koch was the first woman, and Canadian Hansen the first non-American.<\/p>\n
The crew has reported in vivid detail features of the lunar surface and later witnessed a solar eclipse as well as meteorite impacts.<\/p>\n
Mission commander Wiseman reflected that \u201cwhat we really hoped in our soul is that we could, for just a moment, have the world pause – and remember that this is a beautiful planet in a very special place in our universe\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should all cherish what we have been gifted.\u201d<\/p>\n
– Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But until the astronauts are home safe, it\u2019s too early to talk about success, Nasa\u2019s associate administrator Amit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[194932,74,665,6282,24322,11728,5904,54473,2082,79940,6628,2203,8036,3025,111,139,69,17888,34293,39217,102566,147,1551,194931,21694,165],"class_list":{"0":"post-373512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-10day","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-around","11":"tag-artemis","12":"tag-astronauts","13":"tag-critical","14":"tag-final","15":"tag-flyby","16":"tag-for","17":"tag-highstakes","18":"tag-historic","19":"tag-journey","20":"tag-moon","21":"tag-most","22":"tag-new-zealand","23":"tag-newzealand","24":"tag-nz","25":"tag-perhaps","26":"tag-preparing","27":"tag-reentry","28":"tag-risky","29":"tag-science","30":"tag-set","31":"tag-splashdown","32":"tag-step","33":"tag-their"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}