Artemis II astronauts detail 10-day lunar flyby

The Manila Times

Artemis II astronauts detail 10-day lunar flyby  A joint crew from NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) lay out new details on Sept. 24, 2025 of Artemis II’s 10‑day trip around the moon, stressing both the mission’s test‑flight flexibility and a schedule that could open as early as February 2026, with NASA’s official target still April 2026. Commander Reid Wiseman set the tone at the briefing, telling crewmates Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen, 'Victor, Christina, Jeremy, we’re going to the moon.' He emphasized that Artemis II remained a test mission The binational crew also revealed the name of their Orion spacecraft—Integrity—chosen to reflect NASA, CSA, and personal core values,. and their hope that Artemis 'brings together the world … in peace and hope for all humankind,' Wiseman said.  NASA / REUTERS  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe Visit our website at [https://www.manilatimes.net](https://www.manilatimes.net/)  Follow us: Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion  Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital  Check out our Podcasts: Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer Stitcher: https://tmt.ph/stitcher Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein  #TheManilaTimes #WorldNews

Transcript

00:00Mission Specialist Christina Koch and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency.

00:07Victor, Christina, Jeremy, we're going to the moon.

00:13It has been an amazing journey the last two and a half years, and we really see the light at the end of the tunnel.

00:20This is a test mission, and it was highlighted up there.

00:22I know this week NASA has said that we're going to open the launch window in early February,

00:27and we just do not anchor on dates.

00:29We are going to launch when this vehicle is ready, when this team is ready,

00:32and we are going to go execute this mission to the best of our abilities.

00:35When we get off the planet, we might come right back home.

00:38We might spend three or four days around Earth.

00:40We might go to the moon.

00:41That's where we want to go, but it is a test mission, and we are ready for every scenario

00:46as we ride this amazing space launch system and the Orion spacecraft 250,000 miles away.

00:52It's going to be amazing.

00:53A couple months ago, we thought as a crew we need to name this spacecraft.

00:57We need to have a name for the Orion spacecraft that we're going to ride this magical mission on.

01:02And so we got the four of us together and our backups, Jenny Gibbons from the Canadian Space Agency

01:06and Andre Douglas from NASA, and we went over to the quarantine facility here,

01:10and we basically locked ourselves in there until we came up with a name.

01:13And it was amazing.

01:14We started with, like, a lot of names.

01:15I mean, there were names that I loved.

01:17There were names that Christina loved.

01:18We all had our little pet names.

01:20And as we worked our way through this, we went big to small, which this crew does so well.

01:26And we started with the NASA core values.

01:29And then we looked at the Canadian Space Agency core values.

01:33And then we talked about what matters to us most in our core values.

01:37And then we looked out at what is going on with Artemis II.

01:39What do we want this to be?

01:41We want it to be successful Artemis III.

01:43But Jeremy hit it.

01:45You know, peace and hope for all humankind.

01:47That is what we really want.

01:48And so we are bringing together the world.

01:51We are bringing together an amazing workforce.

01:53And they are bringing together an amazing vehicle.

01:55And at the end of all that, when you squeeze it all down, it created magic.

02:00So we're going to fly around the moon in the spacecraft integrity.

02:03The thing I love about the moon is that it's not just a beacon for exploration

02:07and this platform of possibilities for incredible missions like this,

02:11but it has benefits.

02:13That's actually why we're racing towards it.

02:16Those benefits are really, really wide in nature.

02:18You have everything from innovation, technology development,

02:21not only for future missions going deeper into the solar system

02:26and every technology that enables those,

02:28but technology is that come back to Earth.

02:31You have industry benefits.

02:32We are going with commercial partners,

02:34and we are stronger with a strong aerospace industry doing manufacturing here in the country

02:39and building up that expertise that actually has a wide range of applications throughout our industrial world.

02:46But then, of course, there's the big hitter, the lunar geology,

02:49which is actually just another way of saying solar system formation science,

02:54learning, gaining knowledge about how these planetary systems evolve around a sun,

03:00around an energy source.

03:01We can take that information and we can apply it to other solar systems all around the universe.

03:06Our closest approach to the moon is actually going to be scheduled.

03:09We get to take three full hours and devote it to nothing other than observing the lunar surface.

03:16And depending on the time that we launch, depending on the illumination of the far side of the moon,

03:22we hope it's not the dark side.

03:24We hope it's the lit far side, because that could mean that we could see parts of the moon

03:29that never have had human eyes lay upon them before.

03:32And for me, I think that I want to distill it down to a very specific part of the mission, too.

03:38I think for the 45 minutes that were closest to the lunar surface are also going to be out of contact.

03:44We are going to have an LOS in NASA terms, a loss of signal.

03:48And while we cannot talk to the planet and our friends that are even in space on the International Space Station,

03:54I would love it if the entire world, those 8 billion people Jeremy mentioned,

03:58could come together and just, you know, be hoping and praying for us to get that acquisition of signal

04:03and be back in touch with everybody.

04:05And we understand, you know, why there's this perspective of a race

04:09and the benefit to just having that realistic viewpoint of what's going on in the world.

04:13There are very real things happening, and you've got to have heads-up play,

04:17and you've got to be thinking a few steps ahead.

04:19This all makes sense to us.

04:21I think for the four of us, we kind of know what we have to do.

04:25Like, no matter how you look at it, it's really all the same for us.

04:28We're just going to pursue excellence, like I talked about before.

04:31That's how you win a space race, and that's just how you move our countries forward.

04:37More importantly, that's how you create an environment where you might encourage others to collaborate.

04:42This is a beautiful example of collaboration, and winning that race is very important to all of us.

05:18You

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