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Artemis 2 mission specialist Christina Koch and pilot Victor Glover share their thoughts with mission control on the views as they are getting closer to the moon aboard the Orion spacecraft on April 6, 2026.

Credit: NASA | edited by Space.com

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Transcript
00:00just a reminder about this view this is coming from a GoPro camera mounted on
00:04the tip of one of Orion's four solar arrays each solar array has a camera
00:09mounted on it and the bandwidth is limited due to we have a crew on board
00:14and this is our first flight of crew aboard the Orion spacecraft so having a
00:19crew means we have to have an environmental control and life support
00:22system there's a lot of data around a lot of data to bring down for the crew
00:29members to keep us up-to-date on everything happening aboard the
00:33spacecraft so we have to share our bandwidth when it comes to imagery and
00:37data
00:41Houston integrity for SITREP first of all I'll just talk about the experience that
00:49I had during Victor in my observation time it was an incredible experience we
00:55definitely noted how much more you can see with the zoom lens even though we
01:00have a great visible eye image there's just a lot of texture that just pops right
01:07out at you when you can zoom in so almost just using it like a telescope the camera
01:11lens we really enjoyed our discussion time that was a great innovation on the
01:15lunar targeting plan we were both able to describe a lot more kind of with slow I
01:22would say when we were talking to each other and it was also we sort of were
01:27able to bounce ideas off of each other and come to new conclusions we had I think a
01:33very successful talking through of some contacts between different color areas
01:37both in the mare and in the highlands and we identified some really unique
01:42texture areas as well at one point towards the end of the images of my time in
01:50window three I just had an overwhelming sense of being moved by looking at the
01:55moon it lasted just a second or two and I actually couldn't even make it happen
02:00again but something just drew me in suddenly to the lunar landscape and it
02:06became real and the truth is the moon really is its own unit body in the universe
02:14it's not just a poster in the sky that goes by it is a real place and it when we
02:21have that perspective and we compare it to our home of the earth it just reminds us
02:26how much we have in common everything we need the earth provides and that in and of
02:31itself is somewhat of a miracle and one that you can't truly know until you've had
02:37the perspective and of the other I'll switch into some logistics stuff the Peltors both their
02:46batteries stopped providing the active listening but we we have verified they are
02:51still recording and so we are able to have discussion time and hear outside our recordings
02:58by just moving the ear cup off of the ear other than that everything is working well technically
03:03and we've been able to find all our targets and we're having a really great time
03:10thanks Christina we copy those logistics for the Peltors and also thanks for bringing us into the
03:17cabin with you with that description
03:21that call from Capcom Jenny Gibbons CSA astronaut and Artemis 2 crew back up to the crew aboard Orion
03:28letting them know that they will need to remove the window shroud they had placed on
03:32window four they initially placed that shroud there to block out some of the light from
03:37the earth it was extremely bright coming in the cabin and interfering with some of
03:42their viewing opportunities out at the moon this was a request from ground teams to
03:52ensure that they are protecting other systems and the crew has been offered the
03:56opportunity to use something else to cover the window meanwhile Reed Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen continue with
04:08their lunar flyby observations they have just looked at glushko crater that's about when we heard that call
04:15down from Christina cook with that description of everything she had been seeing during her her observation period and what
04:24she was seeing at that time
04:27the science team asked this crew to take centered images of the entire crater and their ray system in one
04:34frame
04:38they're also interested in knowing the brightness texture and extent of glushko's rays and how they differ in the mare
04:45or that sea area versus the highlands
04:52glushko is considered a young lunar crater and these observations can help understand material properties of those craters
05:04science integrity first I wanted to start off with connecting with what Christina said that it was very moving to
05:11look out the window
05:12so I had the unfortunate sequence to start looking out the window and then moved to the long lens and
05:21it was hard to speak looking through the zoom
05:26because I went straight where Christina went and I was walking around down there on the surface climbing and off
05:32-roading on that amazing terrain
05:35I also want to underscore something that she said as we continue to explore when we actually do go down
05:41there to the surface I know for safety reasons
05:43that we would never send someone alone but I just want to really emphasize how important the discussion time was
05:49when we started to talk
05:50we not only got better science discussion we got better human connection and so doing this as a pair we
05:57just learn and grow together
05:59and that's just super important so thank you for adding that to this plan
06:03Reed just passed me a note that the oriental basin angular ring has a similar albedo to the center but
06:11a different color
06:11it has more brownish tones in it and he said it's very distinct now that he's been staring at it
06:20Victor thank you you got a cheer from science there and we all just went on that moonwalk with you
06:28so
06:29highlighting how important it is to talk about these things
06:31I also want to let you know that we have Deanna Glover with us in the viewing gallery she's all
06:37smiles
06:45well you just got a bunch of cheers up here hey babe
06:49I love you from the moon
06:53we love that we got a hey babe too and we also have one of your lovely daughters here
06:58watching you guys work
06:59thank you guys for doing that and for supporting them through this
07:11and to all of you Genesis, Maya, Joya, and Corinne I love you and Deanna I love you I'm glad
07:17you get to be there
07:19we've had some really sweet words from the crew members aboard Orion today as their families have been able to
07:24filter in and out of the viewing room
07:26here at Artemis Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston
07:30Victor Glover also giving a great science sit rep and just a description of how it must
07:36feel if you were down on the lunar surface while he was looking through that 80 to 400 millimeter zoom
07:41lens
07:43he also expressed how important it was
07:46to be able to talk through that real time
07:48with Christina cook and stress the importance of that on future missions
07:52that it not only made their discussions better but also more human
07:55we start eerily不erem
07:56there we
07:56are
07:56still working
07:56that
07:57is
07:57you
07:57we'll
08:00we're
08:01in
08:02theirens
08:02if
08:02we're
08:04let
08:04like
08:04You
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