HOUSTON, Texas — NASA said it’s been a busy couple of days for its Artemis II crew following the launch.
NASA gives the green light for a key burn
While the rocket launch on Wednesday sent four astronauts into space, NASA officials said the Orion spacecraft must perform burns to get the crew 250,000 miles to the moon.
On Thursday, NASA leaders met in Houston to discuss whether to perform the translunar injection burn. If approved, it would send the Artemis II crew to the moon.
After speaking with the crew, inspecting the spacecraft, and conducting other tests, NASA gave the green light for the burn. It’s currently scheduled to happen around 6:49 p.m. central time.
NASA said this will get the spacecraft moving quickly. They said the burn will provide 6,000 pounds of thrust during the nearly six-minute burn. If it was a car, NASA said it would be like going from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 2.7 seconds.
After the burn is complete, NASA said astronauts should reach the moon by Monday.
NASA said it’s been a busy couple of days for its Artemis II crew following the launch. A key engine firing of the mission was approved, and the crew is well on their way to the moon.
‘An amazing ride’: NASA astronaut describes the Artemis II launch
On Thursday, we got our first views inside the Orion capsule. The images showed Commander Reid Wiseman and Mission Specialist Christina Koch performing work.
Wiseman told mission control in Houston what the launch was like.
“It was an amazing ride uphill,” Wiseman recalled. “The views, we’ve got two moon rises that we’ve had so far. The views of planet Earth, we’ve circled it completely, and we forgot how beautiful it is to look down on Earth.”
NASA said the astronauts spent the first couple of days troubleshooting issues with the bathroom, preparing for the burns, and exercising.
Artemis II crew gets to sleep, but not for long
NASA said the four astronauts were able to get some sleep on Thursday, but it wasn’t for long. To perform tests, the crew’s schedule included two rest periods.
After getting about four hours of sleep, mission control in Houston woke them up. NASA said mission control chose the song “Sleepyhead” by Young and Sick.
NASA said the crew got another four hours of sleep, but was woken up again by mission control. This time, they used the song “Greenlight” by John Legend.
After they were woken up, Wiseman said, “Houston, Integrity, we are ready to go, and that was awesome. Thank you for all those messages.”
Crew has plenty of food, but probably not eating much right now
The Artemis II crew has nearly 200 food options aboard the spacecraft, including ten different types of drinks. While there’s plenty of food, NASA officials said the astronauts may choose not to eat a lot of it during the first couple of days of the mission.
“Flight days one and two, you might not feel like eating a lot,” NASA flight operations director Norm Knight explained. “That’s just part of it. Your body is acclimating to Zero-G. Your physiology is transitioning from a 1-G environment to Zero-G. It takes a little bit of adapting.”
While they have water on board, a valve issue forced the astronauts to store an extra supply before performing the burn to send them to the moon.
NASA said this was just a precaution, but in case astronauts couldn’t access the water tanks during their trip to the moon, they asked them to store water in bags.
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