Artemis II Is Go — Humanity's Return to the Moon

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, Season five, episode seventy nine. I'm

0:05 Speaker 1: Anna and.

0:06 Speaker 2: I'm Avery and today today is the day.

0:10 Speaker 1: It really is fifty four years. That's how long humanity

0:14 Speaker 1: has been earthbound, locked inside our cozy corner of the

0:18 Speaker 1: Solar System. No human has ventured beyond low Earth orbit

0:23 Speaker 1: since Apollo seventeen touched down on the Moon in December

0:26 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two.

0:28 Speaker 2: But last night that changed. Four astronauts are on their

0:32 Speaker 2: way to the Moon.

0:33 Speaker 1: Today's episode is a special Artemis two edition. We're going

0:38 Speaker 1: deep on the launch, on the history being made right now,

0:42 Speaker 1: and on what's coming next for this crew. Plus because

0:45 Speaker 1: the universe has a flare for the dramatic, the pink

0:49 Speaker 1: Moon rose over Earth right as they lifted off.

0:52 Speaker 2: Do honestly couldn't write it. Let's get into it.

0:56 Speaker 1: At six thirty five pm Eastern Time on Wednesday, April

1:00 Speaker 1: the first, Yes, April Fool's Day, NASA's Artemis two mission

1:05 Speaker 1: lifted off from Launch Complex thirty nine B at the

1:09 Speaker 1: Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

1:11 Speaker 2: And for the record, absolutely not a joke.

1:14 Speaker 1: Definitely not. The three hundred and twenty two foot tall

1:19 Speaker 1: orange and white space launch system. The SLS vaulted off

1:23 Speaker 1: the pad with eight point eight million pounds of liftoff thrust.

1:28 Speaker 1: The solid rocket boosters alone provided more than seven million

1:33 Speaker 1: pounds of that, burning out just two minutes after launch,

1:36 Speaker 1: when the stack was already twenty nine miles high.

1:40 Speaker 2: Twenty nine miles in two minutes.

1:42 Speaker 1: That's extraordinary, it is, and barely ten minutes after those

1:47 Speaker 1: engines first ignited, Artemis two was in orbit. The launch

1:52 Speaker 1: was nearly flawless. Only minor battery and communications range issues

1:57 Speaker 1: briefly concerned ground crews, and though those were resolved without drama.

2:02 Speaker 2: The crew are safe. They're in great spirits. NASA Administrator

2:05 Speaker 2: Jared Isaacman confirmed that in the post launch briefing. He

2:09 Speaker 2: called it a defining moment, not just for NASA but

2:11 Speaker 2: for everyone who believes in exploration.

2:14 Speaker 1: And this is genuinely historic. The last time human beings

2:18 Speaker 1: headed moonward was December seventh, nineteen seventy two, before any

2:23 Speaker 1: of the four Artemis two crew members were born.

2:27 Speaker 2: That really puts it into perspective.

2:29 Speaker 1: After reaching orbit, Orion deployed its solar array wings, and

2:33 Speaker 1: the crew immediately began transitioning the spacecraft from launch to

2:37 Speaker 1: flight operations. They ran through checks on life support, communications, navigation,

2:44 Speaker 1: and then, as if that wasn't enough, pilot Victor Glover

2:48 Speaker 1: got to take the spacecraft for a manual test drive.

2:51 Speaker 2: A test drive in a spacecraft around Earth.

2:55 Speaker 1: Seventy minutes of hand flying the Orion capsule, which has

2:59 Speaker 1: been official named Integrity maneuvering around the now separated upper

3:04 Speaker 1: stage of the SLS. Lover's verdict and I'm paraphrasing here

3:09 Speaker 1: because we love him. This flies very nicely, very.

3:13 Speaker 2: Precise, excellent review, five stars.

3:16 Speaker 1: So as we record this on Thursday, April second, right

3:20 Speaker 1: now today, the crew of Artemis two is completing the

3:24 Speaker 1: final checks before the most critical maneuver of the mission

3:28 Speaker 1: so far, the.

3:29 Speaker 2: Trans Lunar injection burn TLI. This is the moment they

3:33 Speaker 2: leave Earth's.

3:34 Speaker 1: Orbit exactly if all systems pass, inspection and mission controllers

3:39 Speaker 1: at Houston's Johnson Space Center will be scrutinizing every data point,

3:44 Speaker 1: bellfire Orion's European built service module engine for approximately six

3:50 Speaker 1: minutes around eight pm Eastern tonight.

3:53 Speaker 2: Six minutes to change everything.

3:56 Speaker 1: That burn will accelerate Orion to about twenty four thousand,

4:00 Speaker 1: five hundred miles per hour escape velocity. At that speed,

4:05 Speaker 1: Earth's gravity is still exerting just enough pull that if

4:09 Speaker 1: something went wrong and the engine couldn't fire again, the

4:12 Speaker 1: spacecraft would remain on what's called a free return trajectory.

4:17 Speaker 2: Meaning the Moon's gravity would sling them back towards Earth automatically.

4:21 Speaker 1: Precisely. It's a beautiful piece of physics and a critical

4:26 Speaker 1: safety feature. The crew isn't just being brave. The mission

4:30 Speaker 1: is engineered so that even in a worst case scenario,

4:34 Speaker 1: the Moon becomes the mechanism that brings them.

4:37 Speaker 2: Home and that the checks don't pass.

4:40 Speaker 1: Mission controllers retain the option to command O Ryan home.

4:43 Speaker 1: Early premature end to this test flight, but a safe one.

4:47 Speaker 1: That's what Artemis two is. A test flight. Every system

4:52 Speaker 1: is being validated for the crews who will follow.

4:55 Speaker 2: We'll be watching that TLI burn very closely tonight.

4:58 Speaker 1: Let's talk about the four people making this journey, because

5:01 Speaker 1: beyond the technology, beyond the rocket, this mission is about

5:05 Speaker 1: them and about what their presence means.

5:08 Speaker 2: Commander Read Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Cock

5:13 Speaker 2: from NASA, and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian

5:17 Speaker 2: Space Agency, and This.

5:18 Speaker 1: Crew is making history in ways that go well beyond

5:22 Speaker 1: just going to the Moon. Victor Glover will become the

5:25 Speaker 1: first person of color to travel beyond low Earth orbit,

5:29 Speaker 1: Christina Cock will be the first woman to fly to

5:31 Speaker 1: the Moon's vicinity, and Jeremy Hansen will be the first

5:35 Speaker 1: non American citizen to venture that far from Earth.

5:39 Speaker 2: Every one of those first is significant, and they're all

5:42 Speaker 2: happening on the same flight.

5:44 Speaker 1: The World Air Sports Federation the FAI, is already preparing

5:48 Speaker 1: to ratify what could be multiple spaceflight world records. The

5:52 Speaker 1: mission's planned trajectory will take Oryan to a high point

5:56 Speaker 1: of around seventy thousand kilometers above Earth. The current altitude

6:00 Speaker 1: record for a crude spacecraft in Earth orbit stands at

6:03 Speaker 1: just thirteen hundred and sixty nine kilometers, set by Gemini

6:07 Speaker 1: eleven back in nineteen sixty six.

6:10 Speaker 2: They're going to absolutely shatter that.

6:13 Speaker 1: And the record for the farthest any human has ever

6:16 Speaker 1: been from Earth is currently held by the Apollo thirteen

6:19 Speaker 1: crew two hundred and forty eight thousand, six hundred and

6:23 Speaker 1: fifty five miles. Artemis two is expected to go farther.

6:27 Speaker 2: I keep thinking about Victor Glover saying he just wants

6:30 Speaker 2: to find the quiet moments in all of this, to

6:33 Speaker 2: be present, to actually feel it.

6:35 Speaker 1: He said the biggest challenge would be immersing himself in

6:38 Speaker 1: the moment because it'll be over so quickly. That kind

6:42 Speaker 1: of reflection from someone living with the rest of us

6:45 Speaker 1: can only dream about. That's something special.

6:48 Speaker 2: Specil's hardly the word for it, but I guess we

6:50 Speaker 2: don't have anything better we could deal with a new

6:53 Speaker 2: word to use on occasions like this.

6:55 Speaker 1: So what does the next ten days look like for

6:57 Speaker 1: read Victor, Christina and Jeremy.

7:01 Speaker 2: Once that TLA burn fires tonight, they're on a roughly

7:04 Speaker 2: four day journey outbound gravity will slow them down steadily

7:08 Speaker 2: from nearly twenty five thousand miles per hour all the

7:11 Speaker 2: way down to about thirty four hundred miles per hour,

7:14 Speaker 2: and it.

7:14 Speaker 1: Won't be until they are about forty one thousand miles

7:17 Speaker 1: from the Moon that lunar gravity takes over and starts

7:21 Speaker 1: pulling them forward again. That transition is called the lagrange point,

7:25 Speaker 1: and it's where the Moon effectively claims.

7:28 Speaker 2: Them A six of the mission. That's Monday, April sixth,

7:31 Speaker 2: The crew will reach the Moon's neighborhood approaching from the

7:34 Speaker 2: western lunar hemisphere.

7:36 Speaker 1: They'll come within approximately four thousand miles from the lunar surface,

7:40 Speaker 1: close enough to see detail, far enough to swing around

7:44 Speaker 1: on that free return arc, and they'll be among the

7:46 Speaker 1: first humans ever to lay eyes on parts of the

7:49 Speaker 1: Moon's far side, the.

7:51 Speaker 2: Far side, the side that never faces Earth. No human

7:55 Speaker 2: has seen it directly since the Apollo era.

7:58 Speaker 1: The conditions during the flyby should create long shadows across

8:01 Speaker 1: the surface, sunrise style lighting that reveals ridges, crater rims,

8:06 Speaker 1: and depth that full illumination normally hides. The photographs from

8:11 Speaker 1: this flyby are going to be extraordinary.

8:14 Speaker 2: Here's a thought. I wonder if they'll see the alien

8:16 Speaker 2: moon bases. Maybe we can finally put that story to

8:19 Speaker 2: bed for once and for all.

8:21 Speaker 1: You love your conspiracy theories, don't you. Avery.

8:23 Speaker 2: Let's move on and then they come home.

8:26 Speaker 1: Then they come home. A journey of more than ninety

8:30 Speaker 1: six hours back to Earth with a splash down in

8:34 Speaker 1: the Pacific Ocean planned for Friday, April tenth. That re

8:38 Speaker 1: entry will be at twenty five thousand miles per hour,

8:42 Speaker 1: and Orion will use a skip entry technique, dipping into

8:46 Speaker 1: the atmosphere bouncing back into space, then coming in again,

8:52 Speaker 1: bleeding off speed and heat in stages.

8:55 Speaker 2: We'll be covering every step of it right here on

8:57 Speaker 2: Astronomy Daily.

8:59 Speaker 1: Here's something that didn't get a lot of attention in

9:02 Speaker 1: all the launch excitement, and we think it deserves its moment.

9:06 Speaker 2: The Hitchhikers.

9:08 Speaker 1: About five hours after launch, a series of tiny satellites

9:13 Speaker 1: cube SATs roughly the size of a shoe box, deployed

9:16 Speaker 1: from the Artemis to spacecraft at one minute intervals. Four

9:21 Speaker 1: of them supplied by space agencies from Germany, South Korea,

9:25 Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia and Argentina.

9:28 Speaker 2: That's genuinely international. This isn't just an American mission. It's

9:32 Speaker 2: a mission that's carrying science from four continents into deep space.

9:37 Speaker 1: Germany's contribution is called to Kellis, and it's studying how

9:41 Speaker 1: space affects electrical components that could be used in future

9:45 Speaker 1: lunar vehicles. Think of it as stress testing the hardware

9:49 Speaker 1: that might one day drive a rover across the Moon.

9:53 Speaker 2: And then there's the one I find absolutely fascinating, k

9:56 Speaker 2: rad Cube.

9:58 Speaker 1: Ha rad Cube contains human like tissue organ on a

10:02 Speaker 1: chip technology designed to measure the effects of space radiation

10:06 Speaker 1: as the spacecraft passes through the Van Allen Belts. Those

10:11 Speaker 1: are the two zones of intense radiation that surround Earth,

10:15 Speaker 1: produced by trapped solar particles.

10:18 Speaker 2: So we're essentially sending a tiny laboratory of human tissue

10:21 Speaker 2: through the most radioactive region near Earth to understand what

10:25 Speaker 2: that does to biology.

10:27 Speaker 1: Which directly informs how we protect future crews, not just

10:31 Speaker 1: on Artemis three and beyond, but eventually on missions to Mars.

10:36 Speaker 1: It's one of those stories where the scale of what's

10:39 Speaker 1: being deployed is tiny, but the implications are enormous.

10:44 Speaker 2: The universe in a shoe box.

10:46 Speaker 1: We can't close today's episode without acknowledging the cosmic coincidence

10:51 Speaker 1: that made last night feel almost scripted.

10:54 Speaker 2: The Pink Moon.

10:55 Speaker 1: April's full moon, known as the Pink Moon, reached its

10:59 Speaker 1: peak at ten twelve pm Eastern on Wednesday night, du

11:03 Speaker 1: just hours after the Artemis two launch window opened. The

11:07 Speaker 1: moon itself rose full and luminous over the eastern horizon.

11:12 Speaker 2: Humanity launch towards the Moon under a full moon, I mean,

11:16 Speaker 2: come on.

11:18 Speaker 1: The pink Moon gets its name from the wildflower called

11:21 Speaker 1: moss pink or flocks subulata, which blooms across North America

11:26 Speaker 1: around this time each spring. Various indigenous communities have their

11:30 Speaker 1: own names for it, the flower Moon, the wind break Moon,

11:33 Speaker 1: the frog Moon.

11:35 Speaker 2: And Tonight Thursday, April second, it's still visible. If you're

11:39 Speaker 2: out after dark, look east at dusk. It'll be hard

11:42 Speaker 2: to miss.

11:43 Speaker 1: For our Southern Hemisphere listeners, and there are plenty of you.

11:47 Speaker 1: Look north toward the moon rising in your eastern sky,

11:51 Speaker 1: the same moon our four astronauts are right now hurtling

11:55 Speaker 1: toward at thousands of miles per hour.

11:57 Speaker 2: That shared view us looking up them looking down is

12:01 Speaker 2: one of my favorite things about space exploration. We're all

12:05 Speaker 2: part of it.

12:06 Speaker 1: That's our special artemis to launch day edition of Astronomy Daily.

12:11 Speaker 1: What a day to be alive, and what a day

12:14 Speaker 1: to be listening.

12:15 Speaker 2: We'll be back tomorrow with the latest from the mission,

12:17 Speaker 2: covering that TLI burn result, any updates from the crew

12:21 Speaker 2: aboard Integrity, and whatever else the universe decides to throw

12:24 Speaker 2: at us.

12:25 Speaker 1: If today's episode moved you, if you felt something when

12:28 Speaker 1: that rocket left the pad, share it. Tell someone this

12:32 Speaker 1: is a moment worth talking about.

12:35 Speaker 2: From Anna and Avery at Astronomy Daily.

12:38 Speaker 1: Keep looking up and to read Victor, Christina and Jeremy

12:43 Speaker 1: Safe Travels.

12:44 Speaker 2: We'll be watching day Stars start story for Sola