- 10 hours ago
Nova S53E06
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:06We leave as we came, and, God willing, as we shall return.
00:13After more than 50 years, humanity has finally returned to the moon.
00:22To get there, NASA needed a new rocket that packs a punch.
00:268.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.
00:33I call it the arrogance of humanity.
00:35The fact that we think we can launch machinery like this, it just leaves you with a sense of awe.
00:42How did they build it?
00:43This is like no other kind of atmospheric machine.
00:46We designed for every iteration that could occur between liftoff and orbit.
00:52Copy, Vernon.
00:52What were they up against?
00:54Copy.
00:55China's space program is more advanced than I think a lot of people realize.
01:00When you see something that anomalous on a critical system like the heat shield, where there's no backup, that really
01:06raises your concerns.
01:09They've mitigated the risk as much as possible, but this still could be a catastrophic failure and loss of life.
01:15The inside story of Artemis II, from design to splashdown.
01:23Return to the moon, right now, on Nova.
01:48April 1st, 2026.
01:53It's launch day for the crew of Artemis II.
02:16It's launch day for the crew of Artemis II.
02:22We'll just take a look all the way up and see the top of the rocket.
02:24It's full of fuel, so it'll be venting.
02:27It'll be cold.
02:28It'll be alive.
02:31And we are just teeny tiny specks amongst this 280-foot-tall rocket in front of us.
02:39We'll get in an elevator.
02:41We'll ride that elevator up to the 274 level.
02:46And we walk down the gantry to the white room.
02:50Put on our helmet.
02:51Put on our gloves.
02:52Make sure we look good from head to toe.
02:53And then one at a time, we'll go into the Orion and start getting strapped in.
02:58Artemis II is the first crewed mission to the moon in over 50 years.
03:04The astronauts will travel farther from Earth than any humans have traveled before.
03:10Paving the way for future missions to land on the lunar surface.
03:17When a rocket launch is going ahead, it is almost like poetry in motion.
03:23Everything has to be in perfect alignment before they will give the go-ahead for a launch.
03:30You've got four human beings sitting on top of a massive bomb.
03:34If the detonation is controlled properly, then the rocket goes up and they go to space.
03:40But if something goes wrong, that rocket blows up.
03:44OTC.
03:45OTC is go.
03:46It's taken decades to get here.
03:48The risks are enormous.
03:50MCO.
03:51CO is go.
03:52But now it's finally time.
03:54Time for humans to go back to the moon.
03:57Artemis II crew is go for launch.
04:01I copy that.
04:02Good luck.
04:04Godspeed, Artemis II.
04:07Let's go.
04:25Three years before the launch of Artemis II, NASA launches Artemis I.
04:32A test flight to the moon and back without astronauts on board.
04:41There are things that we've done many times in sims.
04:45And we've done them many times in the lab.
04:48But in a tanked configuration at the pad, it was the first time.
04:56It is incredibly quiet in the room.
05:01Everybody is focused on their system.
05:04They're focused on the data.
05:08I mean, there's not a sound.
05:12It's the first flight of the Space Launch System, SLS.
05:18The rocket, specially built for the Artemis program.
05:23Five million pounds of fuel has to ignite on Q to lift the rocket into space.
05:33Rockets are insanely complex vehicles where everything has to go right for it to succeed.
05:39And if a single important thing goes wrong, the rocket blows up.
05:42I mean, it is the ultimate kind of pass-fail test.
05:46And here we go.
05:47Ten.
05:50I got a bit of a...
05:52The hair on my arm stood up just a little bit as those final six seconds ticked off the countdown
05:59clock.
06:00Six, five, four stage engines start.
06:04And then the call.
06:06Booster ignition and liftoff.
06:10Three, two, one.
06:13Liftoff of Artemis I.
06:15One, one.
06:26It was...
06:28It was breathtaking.
06:32Eight, four.
06:36Good control on the roll from teams in Mission Control Houston.
06:38all good calls so far now 30 seconds into the flight mark was one the SLS is
06:46a multi-stage rocket once each stage or section of the rocket has done its job
06:52it separates the spacecraft becomes lighter better able to accelerate into
07:09space within two hours all that remains is Orion the crew and service modules heading away from
07:18Earth it takes five days to reach the moon where Orion settles into lunar orbit allowing mission
07:30controllers to test its flight systems in deep space for me one of the highlights was seeing the
07:41earth pass behind the moon and disappear and then come out the other side eight billion people
07:51disappeared behind the only other place that humanity had ever been
07:58I've had a different perspective every time I've looked at the moon since then
08:04NASA's newest moon explorer is barreling its way back home after circumnavigating the moon and beyond
08:12when Artemis 1 returns from the moon Orion is traveling 7500 miles per hour faster than a
08:20spacecraft coming back from low Earth orbit as it hits the upper atmosphere friction generates intense
08:28heat and super hot plasma visible through the capsule window the only protection from this inferno is a
08:39heat shield an inch and a half thick demonstrating the heat shield at lunar reentry velocities was our number
08:47one priority because temperatures outside got half as high as the sun approaching 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit
08:58when you come back from the moon you're coming back at Mach 32 or 24,500 miles an hour in
09:05fact we came back at
09:0624,581 miles an hour we're 81 miles an hour over the speed limit and there it is 5,000
09:16feet
09:18three good main shoots for Orion Orion and the perfect orientation for splashdown just seconds away half an hour earlier
09:30Orion was hurtling towards Earth at 32 times the speed of sound
09:37when it hits the water it's falling at less than 20 miles an hour
09:48the idea for Artemis 2 is to go back to the moon but this time with a crew of astronauts
09:55on board
10:01they'll do a single wide loop flying more than 4,000 miles beyond the moon
10:07the farthest any human has been into space before returning to Earth
10:16Artemis 1 was back testing the hardware making sure that everything would work going to the moon and back now
10:22they're putting people on board and people of course there is a sense of danger a sense of trepidation
10:27it just amps up the safety factor right with Artemis 1 a failure will be bad right but it wouldn't
10:34have been catastrophic
10:35if you lose the human crew on Artemis 2 that is catastrophic that calls into question the future of the
10:40whole Artemis program
10:43in April 2023 the Artemis 2 crew is announced
10:49Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Cook and Jeremy Hansen
10:55they'll be the first humans to leave Earth's orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972
11:16Artemis intrinsically builds on the legacy of Apollo
11:20we stand on the shoulders of giants and we've learned so much in human exploration
11:24but of course returning to the moon when we haven't done that for over 50 years
11:29we are looking back to Apollo we're making those comparisons
11:34my golly this time goes fast
11:37Apollo was clearly a program designed to demonstrate US superiority in technology compared to the Soviet Union
11:45and it was successful in that and then once they completed that task they shut it down
11:49because it cost a lot of money and every time they launched there was a 10 or 15 percent chance
11:54that the crew would not come back safely
11:57in only three and a half years the Apollo program completed a total of six lunar landings
12:03at a cost equivalent to 280 billion dollars today
12:24if you look at NASA's budget in the 1960s at its peak it was drawing down five percent of the
12:31federal budget
12:32NASA's budget today is point five percent so so ten times less or one-tenth of what it was back
12:39in the 1960s
12:40and NASA is sort of building the Artemis program within that budget
12:57despite having much less money the long-term ambition for Artemis far exceeds that of Apollo
13:07rather than simply landing astronauts on the moon for a few days at a time
13:12the goal is to establish a moon base
13:17where humans can live and work long term
13:27during the Apollo program each landing was at a different site clustered around the lunar equator
13:35with the Artemis program the plan for future missions is to land near the South Pole
13:43this part of the moon has deep craters where the Sun never shines
13:47they're thought to contain huge deposits of water in the form of ice
13:54where you have ice you have the ability to melt that and provide drinking water clearly for habitation modules
14:01but also then the potential to split that water into hydrogen and oxygen gas
14:07which can be used for atmosphere and it can also be used for potential rocket fuel
14:13but NASA isn't the only one eyeing this prime real estate
14:21China has already announced their intention to land
14:27with their astronauts they call them taikonauts
14:31on the South Pole of the moon
14:35on the schedule that we are
14:39we will land before the Chinese
14:42but it is a race
14:47I do think getting back there first matters a heck of a lot
14:50China would turn that into a huge win
14:54just sort of saying that this is the century of China
14:57look we've surpassed the United States
14:59they can't get back to the moon we can
15:02but that's really why we're going
15:03there's kind of a geopolitical imperative at this time
15:08China's space program is more advanced than I think a lot of people realize
15:12and it is hitting its deadlines and meeting a lot of critical milestones
15:17NASA's program
15:18the deadlines keep getting pushed back
15:20and so there is concern that China's accelerating and NASA's not keeping up
15:28the pressure is on
15:31to speed up the Artemis program
15:33and get its astronauts to the moon
15:39with this goal in mind
15:40thousands of people at sites across the US and in Europe
15:44are developing hardware for Artemis 2
15:51they're building a spacecraft capable of taking astronauts to the moon
15:55and returning them safely
15:57for the first time since the Apollo era
16:06the rocket that'll get them into space
16:08is the SLS
16:10the Space Launch System
16:13its huge core stage contains the fuel tanks and main engines
16:18alongside are two solid fuel boosters
16:22to provide extra thrust at launch
16:26above is the upper stage and service module
16:30which power the vehicle in space
16:34and finally
16:35the crew module
16:37that carries the astronauts
16:39on their journey to the moon
16:53on the outskirts of New Orleans
16:56the core stage of the SLS
16:58is leaving the hangar in which it's been assembled
17:04over 200 feet long
17:06it is the single largest rocket stage
17:09NASA has ever built
17:18when you see SLS you think scale
17:20you do not understand scale
17:23until you go see that thing in real life
17:27I call it the arrogance of humanity
17:29the fact that we think we can assemble machinery like this
17:33and launch it successfully
17:35it just leaves you with a sense of awe
17:38the core stage contains two massive aluminum fuel tanks
17:43which at launch will be filled with liquid hydrogen and oxygen
17:49liquid hydrogen generates more thrust per pound
17:52than any other rocket fuel
17:55but its molecules are so light and loosely packed together
18:00it needs more storage space than any other fuel
18:05that's why the core stage is so large
18:09liquid hydrogen is the rocket fuel of choice
18:12and you can see why
18:13it packs a punch
18:14it will get people to the moon
18:16but it is incredibly hard to handle
18:20it needs to be kept at temperatures of minus 250 celsius
18:24the fuel lines
18:25the tank itself
18:26everything has to be kept at that temperature
18:29or the liquid hydrogen will start to evaporate
18:33to expand
18:35now imagine if your liquid hydrogen starts expanding in the tank
18:39the tank will explode
18:40and so everything has to be kept at that low low temperature
18:43so that everything stays in its liquid form
18:5060% of space shuttle launches had to be postponed
18:54often due to problems with hydrogen fueling
19:00the worry is Artemis will suffer the same complications
19:09liftoff of the 25th space shuttle mission
19:11and it has cleared the tower
19:15NASA knows just how dangerous rocket fuel can be at launch
19:20normal throttles for most of the flight 104%
19:25when the fuel tank of the Challenger space shuttle ruptured
19:29liquid hydrogen ignited
19:31Challenger go and throttle up
19:33causing a catastrophic explosion
19:40that took the lives of seven astronauts
19:44obviously a major malfunction
19:46such disasters have led NASA to prioritize safety over speed
19:57the core stage of the SLS is transported very slowly and carefully by barge
20:04900 miles to Kennedy Space Center
20:07where it will eventually launch
20:11on arrival
20:12it's taken to the vehicle assembly building
20:15the largest single-story building in the world
20:22the head of NASA at the time
20:24Bill Nelson is taking a look for himself
20:29that core stage
20:31packs a big punch
20:33in those four engines right there
20:37by the way those engines were the same engines that were on the space shuttle
20:46but instead of throwing them away
20:48we're using them
20:53in order to support the existing aerospace industry
20:56Congress mandated NASA to reuse and update
21:00the RS-25 engines that had previously powered the space shuttle
21:07Congress basically told NASA that it's going to use contracts
21:12workforce systems from the shuttle from previous programs
21:19developed in the 1970s to deliver maximum thrust from liquid hydrogen
21:24RS-25s were known as the Ferrari of rocket engines
21:30but reusing them comes at a cost
21:34the space shuttle main engines were great engines
21:37just brilliant engineering
21:39but it turns out if you want an affordable space program
21:43you don't want to be launching Ferraris in space
21:45especially if like you drive it one time and the car goes away
21:49the RS-25s were originally designed to be reusable
21:54but on Artemis each of them will be flown only once
21:58and then discarded
22:01if you total up all the money that NASA is spending
22:04the cost of the single RS-25 engine is between 100 and 140 million US dollars
22:13SpaceX is building a comparable Raptor engine for $500,000
22:19half a million
22:21if you were starting from a clean sheet this is probably not what you would have designed
22:26but given all the political financial and technical realities it is the systems we have
22:31it's the best shot we have to get to the moon in the next few years
22:34and so NASA is making the best of it
22:37the engines need to generate enough thrust to get the rocket into space
22:43balancing the rocket equation
22:46which determines the ratio of fuel to mass to thrust required for a successful launch
22:55physics doesn't read PowerPoint
22:57it doesn't read our reports
22:59it doesn't care about any of that
23:00so the rocket equation is simply a representation of the physical requirements to cheat gravity
23:07the tyranny of the rocket equation is that heavy rockets require more fuel
23:13but more fuel makes rockets heavier
23:16requiring even more fuel
23:19a fully loaded SLS weighs 5.7 million pounds
23:245 million of that is fuel
23:2890% of the entire mass that we've got is chemical energy
23:31and a good bit of the rest of that mass is actually structure to hold that chemical energy
23:38we're going from zero velocity setting on the launch pad
23:42to 32,000 feet per second
23:45that's an incredible energy ride
23:48so we continually accelerate
23:51so this is like no other kind of atmospheric machine
23:55it's not like airplanes
23:56it's not like cars
23:57we don't get to a cruising speed and stop
24:00and so we designed for every iteration that could occur
24:03between liftoff and orbit
24:14since the 1960s
24:16NASA rockets have been designed here
24:18at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama
24:22out of this center will come the vehicles
24:25the vehicles that will carry the United States into outer space
24:36its historic wind tunnel is still used to test the aerodynamics of the SLS
24:43there's a joke around Marshall Space Flight Center that in God we trust
24:47everybody else bring data
24:51by inserting a scale model of the SLS into the wind tunnel and blowing air over it
24:57engineers can study the forces acting on the rocket as it accelerates into space
25:05this is 25 to 50,000 feet and air molecules pile up on each other and they create a very
25:11dense layer of air and so that's what we call a shock wave and so once we get supersonic we'll
25:18see these all over the vehicle
25:21that dictates our stability and our control system and this gives us all the data that we need in order
25:27to control the rocket
25:30this data can be used to create computer simulations that plot every second of the rocket's journey
25:39rocket science has a thousand different parts a thousand different components that have to be done perfectly
25:45it's not just focusing on one big task it's all these little parts and when they all come together they
25:51don't always work seamlessly
25:52and so that's why all of this stuff has to be checked and tested so rigorously
25:58at the top of the spacecraft sits the Orion capsule which carries the four astronauts
26:04its cabin is 50% larger than on Apollo about the size of a passenger van
26:11but before it can go to the moon it needs to be certified ready to fly
26:21to do this engineers are running post-flight tests on the return capsule from Artemis one
26:33they start by shaking the capsule blasting it with extreme noise equivalent to the sound of 200 jet engines
26:45simulating the most extreme vibrations that might occur during a mission
26:55the focus today is on the forward bay cover the cap on top of the capsule
27:02it needs to eject on re-entry so the parachutes can deploy safely
27:08this happened on Artemis one
27:12but now they're testing the same mechanism for Artemis two
27:18with a replacement forward bay cover
27:21it takes
27:23less than a second for the pyros or explosives to separate that cover
27:28but it takes months to plan
27:31months to make sure that everything is set up like we're looking here
27:34at a catch system so the forward bay cover will go into that net
27:39the bungee cords then will keep a tension so it stays in that
27:42and then we have very high speed photogrammetry cameras that are set up with
27:48extremely bright lights that are focused on the hardware so the engineers can analyze it
27:53and see if all the systems are performing as expected
27:58if any wires or bolts have come loose from the shaking the mechanism won't function properly
28:06potentially delaying the launch of Artemis two
28:12ready to test
28:13all right
28:15let's go test
28:19testing does end up requiring more time to be put into the design development process of spacecraft
28:28but it's necessary
28:31at both the component level and all the way up to the entire system level
28:37that's how we fly spacecraft safely
28:41on my mark I'll fire at DC Pyros
28:46three
28:49two
28:51one
28:57yes
28:58woo
29:09the forward bay cover has detached cleanly
29:14the capsules design has passed its test
29:20but all is not well with Orion
29:29when Artemis one splashed down the mission was hailed as a great success
29:35but in reality
29:37there were problems with the capsule
29:40when it was hauled onto the recovery ship
29:43it was quickly examined by engineers
29:46their biggest concern
29:48the heat shield
29:50how was it affected by the intense heat of re-entry
29:57its epoxy resin tiles were meant to melt and vaporize
30:02taking heat away from the capsule
30:07but it didn't work out like that
30:12this report caused quite a stir when it came out
30:15it makes some pretty sort of damning claims really
30:20what I'm looking at here especially is the pictures of the Orion heat
30:24shield
30:25what you can see is sort of cavities and some burn marks on these areas
30:30and it is pretty scary
30:32because this was the technology is going to be used to get people
30:36to the moon
30:37and yet there is this degradation
30:41and the Inspector General actually says
30:44in our judgement the unexpected behaviour of the heat shield
30:47poses a significant risk to the safety of future crewed missions
30:52and sort of having something like that written in a report
30:57means a response is needed
30:59something has to change
31:00because this sort of charring of the heat shield
31:03could risk human life
31:07the material is ablative
31:08so it sort of burns away slowly
31:11and you expect that
31:12but you didn't expect chunks of it to fall away
31:15like they did
31:19when you see something that anomalous on a critical system like the heat shield
31:23where there is no backup
31:25then that really raises your concerns
31:31the technologies that we thought would be ready or not
31:36because there was some charring
31:39on Artemis 1
31:41that was one of the unexpected things
31:46the dangers of re-entry are all too familiar to NASA
31:50it looks like you can see pieces of the shuttle coming off
31:57Columbia Houston
31:59UHF comm check
32:03Columbia Houston UHF comm check
32:08Damage to the thermal protection system led to the break up of Columbia
32:12on its return to earth
32:16as with Challenger
32:18seven astronauts lost their lives
32:22the space shuttle had two major disasters and 14 astronauts died
32:26that has weighed heavily on NASA, on America
32:31and it's definitely something that has affected this mission
32:34than in other human spaceflight missions
32:37The launch of Artemis 2 is postponed
32:40as NASA investigates what went wrong with the heat shield
32:44and how best to proceed with the mission
32:51While engineers search for a solution to the heat shield problem
32:55the astronauts continue training
32:59Today, they're in the Orion simulator
33:02practicing each maneuver, engine burn, and course correction
33:07Even communicating with mission control is a training exercise
33:12Copy, Vernon
33:14Copy
33:17There is a lot of training
33:18If we were to boil it all down
33:20we could probably get it done in under a year
33:23but we are also flying this vehicle for the first time
33:25so we do need to spend
33:27a lot more time than the next crew will have to spend
33:30on just all of the what-ifs
33:33Alright, we're starting to plow them
33:35I see good numbers
33:37I concur
33:40During the mission, they'll be testing the human systems
33:43that couldn't be tested on Artemis 1
33:47Flight control, navigation, and life support
33:52We are talking to the engineers
33:53going through every single detail with them
33:56We're road testing the training
33:57We're road testing the preparation towards launch
34:00We're road testing all of that, that's our job
34:03There's the moon
34:06Nice
34:06Boom
34:08Looks like we're pointed in the way driving
34:10There is no substitute for preparation
34:14There's no substitute for having an intimate knowledge of what you're doing
34:18And what that allows you to do is generate options when things go wrong
34:21As we say in the military, you train hard, you fight easy
34:28On the Artemis 2 mission, the astronauts aren't going to do much flying
34:32They're going to do some demonstrations, but that's not essential
34:35Orion could fly itself to around the moon
34:37But in emergencies, you do want humans flying
34:41That's what they trained for
34:42We're at Houston, looks like a good bird
34:45Okay, excellent news Houston
34:47We saw a good bird and all good indications up here as well
34:51There's more stuff to this, so maybe it was one of the later
34:53I often get asked, why put people in space?
34:56We have robotic missions, we have AI
34:58Why have humans?
35:02To me, they are critical
35:04Because they are literally the eyes and the ears of the mission
35:08If something goes wrong, you just need that human ingenuity to find solutions
35:14NASA had a stark reminder of this in June 2024, when the Boeing Starliner malfunctioned
35:23And we have our first views of Starliner from the International Space Station
35:31Starliner mission, that was supposed to fly itself essentially to the space station
35:37And as it got sort of to within a few kilometers, thrusters started blinking out
35:46Butch Wilmore, who was the commander of that mission, took control
35:51Estimated conduct a little bit more than two minutes
35:56His actions were pretty heroic
35:59In terms of guiding that spacecraft
36:03To the space station safely
36:08Capture
36:10If a human had not been on board, that mission would have been lost
36:15Nice to be attached to the big city in the sky
36:20After a two year investigation into the safety of the heat shield
36:24NASA finally announces its conclusions
36:29They blame the damage on the skip entry maneuver
36:33Which was used on Artemis 1 to slow down the capsule during re-entry
36:40This is a technique we use coming back from the moon
36:44Because the velocity is much greater than coming back from low Earth orbit
36:53They were trying a different re-entry procedure, a skip entry
36:57So that's where the spacecraft dips into the Earth's atmosphere once
37:03Then it creates a small amount of lift
37:06It exits the Earth's atmosphere
37:09And then it comes back in a second time for the re-entry
37:15And by doing that skip maneuver
37:17It meant that layers of gas were trapped inside the heat shield
37:21So when it came into the Earth's atmosphere for the second time
37:24Those gases had to escape
37:26And that caused cracking and chunks of the heat shield to come off
37:34NASA decides to keep the existing heat shield design for Artemis 2
37:38But to ditch the double-dip skip entry
37:46Instead, Artemis 2 will make what engineers call a ballistic entry
37:51With a single, steeper profile
37:53As if the capsule has been fired like a bullet from a gun
37:59But will it work?
38:03We don't know
38:05I mean, engineering, the models, all the modeling suggests it will work
38:10But all of that data suggested that with the skip re-entry on Artemis 1
38:15There wouldn't be heat shield loss
38:18So...
38:19This is a compromise
38:20They're keeping the existing heat shield
38:22Because to design a new one would take an awful long time
38:25But with all space missions, there is a risk
38:29They've mitigated the risk as much as possible
38:31But there is still always that risk
38:33That there could be a catastrophic failure and loss of life
38:38I do think ultimately
38:40If Artemis is going to be carried out on any kind of a, you know, reasonable timeline
38:45There will have to be some risks taken
38:49I think we're seeing that with the Orion heat shield being flown as is on Artemis 2
38:57We'll be nervous coming in
38:59You can't be not nervous
39:01But you trust the architecture, you trust the engineering, and it's going to work out
39:22We'll be nervous
39:23Now this is the start of a very long journey
39:26We ended our last human exploration of the moon
39:29In Apollo 17, the 17th mission
39:33And I hope someday my kids are going to be watching, maybe decades into the future
39:37The Artemis 100 mission
39:40We should be able to undertake repeatable, affordable missions to and from the moon
39:46The SLS rocket rolls slowly out to the launch pad
39:51Top speed, 0.8 miles per hour
39:56You four are about to fly farther into space than any humans have ever flown
40:01But how are you training your families as you get ready to leave them behind on Earth?
40:07Trying to train them honestly and openly
40:10With my kids, I told them, here's where the will is, here's where the trust documents are
40:14And if anything happens to me, here's what's going to happen to you
40:16It's our families that we think about the most on launch day
40:21After 12 hours, the rocket arrives at its destination
40:26Launch pad 39B
40:34But in February, it has to roll back again
40:37Into the vehicle assembly building
40:41Engineers have discovered two problems
40:44A hydrogen leak
40:45And a helium flow issue
40:53By March, the rocket has been repaired
40:56And it rolls out again
41:00NASA sets a new launch date
41:02April 1st, 2026
41:10About nine hours prior to liftoff, we'll wake up
41:13They're going to take our temperature, our weight, our blood pressure
41:16Once that's complete, it's time to go start getting dressed
41:19And we'll go into the suit room
41:23They'll leak check us
41:25Make sure our suit holds pressure
41:28And then when that's complete, we wait until it's time to walk out
41:41From the moment that you walk out to go out to the launch pad, you're on this extremely choreographed timeline
41:51We are now under an hour from the opening of our two-hour launch window at 624 p.m. Eastern
41:59Time
41:59Yes, this has been a beautiful day
42:01Rocket science has hundreds or thousands of things that all have to go just right
42:05It all has to be perfect
42:07The rocket has to launch within this window
42:09If it doesn't launch in this window, it can't go today
42:12Eyes on how exciting
42:13Right now the rocket does not know what the T-0 is
42:16You get to T-minus 10 minutes
42:1810 minutes to go in the countdown
42:20They'll pause it there for about 30 minutes
42:22They'll go through and ask basically everyone if they're part of the rocket or the spacecraft is good to go
42:28MCO
42:29TO is go
42:31Houston flight, Houston flight is go
42:33If there's a reading out of bounds during that time
42:37Then the countdown will be stopped and the launch will be scrubbed for the day
42:39Artemis 2 crew is go for launch
42:43I copy that
42:45Good luck
42:47Godspeed Artemis 2
42:49Let's go
42:5110
42:539
42:548
42:557
42:56RS-25
42:57Hit
42:583
43:002
43:011
43:02Booster ignition
43:04And liftoff
43:06Go!
43:07Go!
43:12The crew of Artemis 2 now bound for the moon
43:17Humanity's next great voyage begins
43:21Good roll pitch
43:24Roger, roll pitch
43:33Mission control Houston seeing good performance and loading engines
43:37Three miles in altitude
43:39Traveling more than 1200 miles per hour
43:45The rocket powers its way into orbit as designed by the engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center
43:56Confirmed separation
43:57Confirmed separation
44:01Now passing 5,000 miles per hour
44:05Houston integrity, good last genesis, great view
44:10Integrity, nominal NECO, core stage separated
44:15For this voyage, the crew has named their ship Integrity
44:22It's now traveling beyond low earth orbit
44:26Heading for the moon
44:30We know that there was some talk about some burnt smell from the heaters
44:36So we're just thought we'd check in with you
44:39The astronauts test the life support systems
44:44Exercise for 30 minutes daily
44:47Christina Koch taking the camera
44:50And even deal with a toilet issue
44:53To show us a wastewater dump
44:55As they adjust to life in deep space
44:58Your body is being bombarded by galactic cosmic rays
45:03And actually we see that as astronauts
45:05When we're falling asleep
45:06You close your eyes
45:08And before you actually drop off
45:09You'll see several flashes
45:12Like bright streaks of light going across your eye
45:15And you know that that's a high energy particle striking the back of your retina
45:19It's quite pretty to look at
45:21But it's not when you realize the damage that that could be doing to your body
45:25And that could cause some form of cancer
45:28And that could cause some form of cancer
45:35Good morning, Houston from Inside Integrity
45:39On day six, Integrity reaches the moon
45:42And 12,712 miles
45:46The crew will do a seven-hour flyby
45:48Capturing high-quality images of the moon's surface
45:52Going farther from Earth than any crew has gone before
45:58But first, they want to name a crater
46:01Located at the western edge of the moon's near side
46:06A number of years ago, we started this journey
46:08In our close-knit astronaut family
46:10And we lost a loved one
46:14Her name was Carol
46:16The spouse of Reed, the mother of Katie and Ellie
46:21And we would like to call her Carol
46:24And you spell that C-A-R-R-O-L
46:29As well
46:40On the ground, the science team is receiving live reports
46:44As the astronauts fly by the moon
46:48Observing different geological features
46:51I think Copernicus is the easternmost feature that we can see
46:56A very nice ring to the north and the south
47:00With a lot of terrain, shadow features
47:05We are getting a sneak preview from one of our saw cameras
47:09And what you're looking at
47:10And we see some of what you're describing
47:12We love it
47:16The Artemis II crew has been trained to observe the moon
47:20To find significant features
47:23As a spacecraft goes around the moon
47:26An astronaut can look at a spot from different angles
47:28It might take a spacecraft years to have that trajectory
47:31Where they can see all those angles
47:34Something I've never seen in photographs before
47:36But it's very apparent
47:38All the new craters, some of them are super tiny
47:41There's a couple that really stand out, obviously
47:44And they are so bright compared to the rest of the moon
47:50The flyby ends with a final flourish
47:59A total solar eclipse, seen from space
48:05The sun has gone behind the moon
48:09And the corona is still visible
48:12And it creates a halo almost around the entire moon
48:15But when you get to the Earth's side
48:16The Earth's shine is already showing
48:18And the moon is just hanging in front of us
48:22This black orb out in front of us
48:25Wow, it's amazing
48:29No matter how long we look at this
48:31Our brains are not processing this image in front of us
48:36There's no adjectives
48:37There's no adjectives
48:37I'm going to need to invent some new ones
48:39To describe what we are looking at out this window
48:46Wow
48:47This is so cool
48:48But as the sun comes out
48:50It's time for the Artemis crew to head home
49:00On day 10, integrity separates from the service module
49:06And falls to Earth
49:10Reentry, I think, is probably the most critical part of the mission
49:14You can see the reflection of one of the crew members in the window
49:18You're testing the Orion heat shield
49:20Which had some failure during Artemis 1
49:24In terms of pucker factor for me
49:26That reentry will be the highest part
49:31There's no getting around it
49:32It is a time of trepidation
49:35And it is one of those moments where you wish them Godspeed
49:41And we have crossed the threshold now entering the Earth's atmosphere
49:48This will be a six-minute blackout period
49:50No voice, no data from the crew
49:54Integrity's traveling 25,000 miles per hour
49:58Faster than Artemis 1
50:00Whose heat shield was badly damaged
50:05So that pinpoint of light shows the vehicle
50:08The first tug of gravity being felt by Integrity's astronauts
50:13The minutes tick by
50:18We're getting intermittent views
50:22Still waiting to establish voice communication
50:28Integrity, Houston
50:30Com check post blackout
50:35Houston, Integrity, we have you loud and clear
50:39Big cheers from the viewing room here in mission control
50:42As voice communication re-established with Commander Reid Wiseman
50:47We see three good-looking parachutes
50:51Integrity copies
50:57NASA's gamble has paid off
50:59The heat shield has done its job
51:03Use the integrity
51:04Mission accomplished
51:06landing command now
51:08Splash down confirmed
51:16The first crew member is out of integrity
51:21My hope is that this is just the beginning of not Artemis 3, 4, 5, but Artemis 30, 50
51:28And then you have a growing community on the moon
51:31Potentially on Mars
51:33Throughout the solar system
51:36The really hard work for Artemis is still ahead of us
51:39The third crew after all forms says
51:40It is still the end of Ephesians 3, 5, but the chrome decks
51:41but the same force is based upon the mars
51:44It has been치� diese HQ now but it helps us our soe-looking
51:47It is today the perfect, possible
Comments