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NOVA - Season 53 - Episode 06: Return to the Moon
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00:06We leave as we came, and, God willing, as we shall return.
00:12After more than 50 years, humanity has finally returned to the moon.
00:21To 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 all.
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.
00:51Copy, 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.
01:19From 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.
02:22You can look all the way up and see the top of the rocket.
02:23It'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, put on our gloves, make sure we look good from head to toe, and then one
02:54at 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.
03:44OTC 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.
04:44And 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.
05:07I 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 cue 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.
05:47Penn.
05:50I got a bit of a, the hair on my arm stood up just a little bit as those final
05:56six seconds ticked off the countdown clock.
05:59Six, five, four stage engines start.
06:04And then the call, booster ignition and liftoff.
06:10Three, two, one.
06:13Liftoff of Artemis I.
06:26It was, it was breathtaking.
06:36Good control on the roll from teams in Mission Control Houston.
06:39All good calls so far.
06:40Now 30 seconds into the flight of Artemis I.
06:44The SLS is a multi-stage rocket.
06:48Once each stage or section of the rocket has done its job, it separates.
06:56The spacecraft becomes lighter, better able to accelerate into space.
07:10Within two hours, all that remains is Orion, the crew and service modules heading away from Earth.
07:21It takes five days to reach the moon, where Orion settles into lunar orbit, allowing mission controllers to test its
07:31flight systems in deep space.
07:37For me, one of the highlights was seeing the Earth pass behind the moon and disappear and then come out
07:45the other side.
07:48Eight billion people disappeared behind the only other place that humanity had ever been.
08:04NASA's newest moon explorer is barreling its way back home after circumnavigating the moon and beyond.
08:12When Artemis I returns from the moon, Orion is traveling 7,500 miles per hour faster than a spacecraft coming
08:21back from low Earth orbit.
08:24As it hits the upper atmosphere, friction generates intense heat and super hot plasma, visible through the capsule window.
08:36The only protection from this inferno is a heat shield, an inch and a half thick.
08:44Demonstrating the heat shield at lunar re-entry velocities was our number one priority.
08:49Because 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.
09:05In fact, we came back at 24,581 miles an hour.
09:09We were 81 miles an hour over the speed limit.
09:13And there it is, 5,000 feet.
09:18Three good main chutes for Orion.
09:22Orion in the perfect orientation for splashdown.
09:26Just seconds away.
09:29Half an hour earlier, Orion 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 II is to go back to the moon, but this time with a crew of astronauts
09:55on board.
10:00They'll do a single wide loop, flying more than 4,000 miles beyond the moon, the farthest any human has
10:09been into space, before returning to Earth.
10:17Artemis I was back testing the hardware, making sure that everything would work going to the moon and back.
10:22Now they're putting people on board.
10:24And people, of course, there is a sense of danger, a sense of trepidation.
10:28It just amps up the safety factor, right?
10:31With Artemis I, a failure would be bad, right?
10:33But it wouldn't have been catastrophic.
10:36If you lose the human crew on Artemis II, that is catastrophic.
10:39That calls into question the future of the whole Artemis program.
10:43In April 2023, the Artemis II crew is announced.
10:49Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen.
10:54They'll be the first humans to leave Earth's orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972.
11:03Hello, Houston.
11:04Oh, 17, last, clear.
11:07Hip-biddy-hoppity, hip-biddy-hoppity, hip-biddy-hopping over you and do.
11:12Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
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.
11:31We're making those comparisons.
11:34My golly, this time goes fast.
11:37Apollo was clearly a program designed to demonstrate U.S. superiority in technology
11:43compared to the Soviet Union.
11:45And it was successful in that.
11:47And then once they completed that task, they shut it down because it cost a lot of money.
11:50And every time they launched, there was a 10 or 15 percent chance that the crew would not come back
11:55safely.
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 today.
12:11We leave as we came, and, God willing, as we shall return.
12:17We have peace and hope for all mankind.
12:24If you look at NASA's budget in the 1960s, at its peak, it was drawing down 5 percent of the
12:31federal budget.
12:32NASA's budget today is 0.5 percent.
12:35So 10 times less, or one-tenth of what it was back in the 1960s.
12:40And NASA's 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.
13:06Rather than simply landing astronauts on the moon for a few days at a time,
13:12the goal is to establish a moon base where 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.
13:48They'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 with their astronauts,
14:30they call them taikonauts, on the South Pole of the moon.
14:35On the schedule that we are, we 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.
15:00We 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, the deadlines keep getting pushed back.
15:21And so there is concern that China's accelerating and NASA's not keeping up.
15:28The pressure is on to speed up the Artemis program and get its astronauts to the moon.
15:39With this goal in mind, thousands of people at sites across the U.S. and in Europe
15:44are developing hardware for Artemis II.
15:51They're building a spacecraft capable of taking astronauts to the moon
15:55and returning them safely for the first time since the Apollo era.
16:06The rocket that'll get them into space is the SLS, the Space Launch System.
16:13It's huge core stage contains the fuel tanks and main engines.
16:19Alongside are two solid fuel boosters to provide extra thrust at launch.
16:26Above is the upper stage and service module, which power the vehicle in space.
16:34And finally, the crew module that carries the astronauts on their journey to the moon.
16:54On the outskirts of New Orleans, the core stage of the SLS
16:58is leaving the hangar in which it's been assembled.
17:04Over 200 feet long, it is the single largest rocket stage NASA has ever built.
17:18When you see SLS, you think scale.
17:21You do not understand scale until you go see that thing in real life.
17:27I call it the arrogance of humanity.
17:30The fact that we think we can assemble machinery like this
17:33and launch it successfully, it 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.
17:48Liquid hydrogen generates more thrust per pound than any other rocket fuel.
17:54But its molecules are so light and loosely packed together,
17:59it 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.
18:15It 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, the tank itself,
18:27everything has to be kept at that temperature,
18:29or the liquid hydrogen will start to evaporate, to 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.
19:08Liftoff of the 25th space shuttle mission,
19:12and it has cleared the tower.
19:15NASA knows just how dangerous rocket fuel can be at launch.
19:21Normal throttles for most of the flight, 104%.
19:24When the fuel tank of the Challenger space shuttle ruptured,
19:29liquid hydrogen ignited.
19:31Challenger, go with throttle up.
19:33Causing a catastrophic explosion.
19:40That took the lives of seven astronauts.
19:44Obviously a major malfunction.
19:47Such disasters have led NASA to prioritize safety over speed.
19:57The core stage of the SLS is transported very slowly and carefully by barge,
20:03900 miles to Kennedy Space Center,
20:06where it will eventually launch.
20:11On arrival, it's taken to the Vehicle Assembly Building,
20:15the largest single-story building in the world.
20:22The head of NASA at the time, Bill Nelson,
20:26is taking a look for himself.
20:29That core stage packs a big punch
20:34in those four engines right there.
20:37By the way, those engines were the same engines
20:41that 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,
20:57Congress 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
21:11contracts, workforce systems from the shuttle,
21:14from previous programs.
21:19Developed in the 1970s
21:21to deliver maximum thrust from liquid hydrogen,
21:25RS-25s were known as the Ferrari of rocket engines.
21:31But 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
21:47and the car goes away.
21:49The RS-25s were originally designed to be reusable.
21:53But 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
22:08is between 100 and 140 million U.S. dollars.
22:13SpaceX is building a comparable Raptor engine
22:16for $500,000, half a million.
22:21If you were starting from a clean sheet,
22:23this is probably not what you would have designed.
22:26But given all of the political, financial,
22:29and technical realities, it is the systems we have.
22:31It's the best shot we have to get to the moon
22:33in the next few years.
22:34And so NASA's making the best of it.
22:37The engines need to generate enough thrust
22:40to get the rocket into space,
22:43balancing the rocket equation,
22:46which determines the ratio of fuel
22:49to mass, to thrust,
22:51required 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
23:03of the physical requirements to cheat gravity.
23:07The tyranny of the rocket equation
23:10is that heavy rockets require more fuel.
23:13But more fuel makes rockets heavier,
23:16requiring even more fuel.
23:20A fully loaded SLS weighs 5.7 million pounds.
23:255 million of that is fuel.
23:2890% of the entire mass that we've got
23:30is chemical energy.
23:31And a good bit of the rest of that mass
23:33is actually structured to hold that chemical energy.
23:38We're going from zero velocity,
23:40setting 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 design for every iteration
24:02that could occur between 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
24:25that will carry the United States
24:27into outer space.
24:36Its historic wind tunnel is still used
24:39to test the aerodynamics of the SLS.
24:43There's a joke around Marshall Space Flight Center
24:46that in God we trust,
24:47everybody else bring data.
24:51By inserting a scale model of the SLS
24:54into the wind tunnel
24:55and blowing air over it,
24:58engineers can study the forces acting on the rocket
25:01as it accelerates into space.
25:05This is 25,000 to 50,000 feet
25:08and air molecules pile up on each other
25:10and they create a very dense layer of air
25:14and so that's what we call a shock wave.
25:16And so once we get supersonic,
25:17we'll see these all over the vehicle.
25:21That dictates our stability
25:22and our control system
25:24and this gives us all the data that we need
25:26in order to control the rocket.
25:30This data can be used
25:31to create computer simulations
25:34that plot every second of the rocket's journey.
25:39Rocket science has a thousand different parts,
25:42a thousand different components
25:43that have to be done perfectly.
25:45It's not just focusing on one big task.
25:47It's all these little parts
25:49and when they all come together,
25:50they don't always work seamlessly
25:52and so that's why all of this stuff
25:54has to be checked and tested so rigorously.
25:58At the top of the spacecraft
25:59sits the Orion capsule
26:01which carries the four astronauts.
26:04Its cabin is 50% larger than on Apollo,
26:07about the size of a passenger van.
26:11But before it can go to the moon,
26:13it needs to be certified ready to fly.
26:21To do this,
26:23engineers are running post-flight tests
26:25on the return capsule from Artemis I.
26:33They start by shaking the capsule,
26:36blasting it with extreme noise,
26:39equivalent to the sound of 200 jet engines,
26:45simulating the most extreme vibrations
26:47that might occur during a mission.
26:55The focus today is on the forward bay cover,
26:58the cap on top of the capsule.
27:01It needs to eject on re-entry
27:04so the parachutes can deploy safely.
27:08This happened on Artemis I.
27:12But now they're testing the same mechanism
27:14for Artemis II
27:17with a replacement forward bay cover.
27:21It takes less than a second
27:24for the pyros or explosives
27:26to separate that cover.
27:28But it takes months to plan,
27:31months to make sure
27:32that everything is set up.
27:33Like, we're looking here
27:34at a catch system
27:36so the forward bay cover
27:37will go into that net,
27:39the bungee cords then
27:40will keep attention
27:41so it stays in that.
27:42And then we have
27:44very high-speed photogrammetry cameras
27:46that are set up
27:47with extremely bright lights
27:49that are focused on the hardware
27:51so the engineers can analyze it
27:53and see if all the systems
27:54are performing as expected.
27:58If any wires or bolts
28:00have come loose from the shaking,
28:01the mechanism won't function properly,
28:06potentially delaying
28:07the launch of Artemis II.
28:12Ready to test?
28:13All right.
28:15Let's go test.
28:19Testing does end up requiring
28:22more time to be put
28:24into the design development process
28:25of spacecraft.
28:28But it's necessary
28:31at both the component level
28:33and all the way up
28:34to the entire system level.
28:37That's how we fly
28:38the spacecraft safely.
28:42On my mark,
28:43I'll fire at DC Pyros.
28:46Three.
28:49Two.
28:51One.
28:57Yes!
28:59Woo!
28:59Uh-oh!
29:01Woo!
29:02Woo!
29:02Woo!
29:02Woo!
29:03Woo!
29:03Woo!
29:03Woo!
29:03Woo!
29:09The forward bay cover
29:11has detached cleanly.
29:14The capsule's design
29:15has passed its test.
29:20But all is not well
29:22with Orion.
29:29When Artemis I
29:30splashed down,
29:31the mission was hailed
29:33as a great success.
29:35But in reality,
29:37there were problems
29:38with the capsule.
29:40When it was hauled
29:41onto the recovery ship,
29:43it was quickly examined
29:44by engineers.
29:46Their biggest concern,
29:48the heat shield.
29:50How was it affected
29:52by the intense heat
29:53of re-entry?
29:57It's epoxy resin tiles
29:59were meant to melt
30:01and vaporize,
30:02taking heat away
30:04from the capsule.
30:07But it didn't work out
30:08like that.
30:12This report caused
30:13quite a stir
30:14when it came out.
30:15It makes some pretty
30:17sort of damning claims,
30:19really.
30:20What I'm looking at here
30:21especially is the pictures
30:23of the Orion heat shield.
30:25What you can see
30:26is sort of cavities
30:27and some burn marks
30:29on these areas.
30:30And it is pretty scary
30:32because this was the technology
30:34that's going to be used
30:35to get people
30:36to the moon.
30:37and yet there is
30:39this degradation.
30:41And the Inspector General
30:43actually says,
30:44in our judgment,
30:45the unexpected behavior
30:46of the heat shield
30:47poses a significant risk
30:49to the safety
30:50of future crewed missions.
30:53And sort of having
30:55something like that
30:56written in a report
30:57means a response is needed.
30:59Something has to change
31:00because this sort of charring
31:02of the heat shield
31:03could risk human life.
31:07The material is ablative
31:08so it sort of burns away
31:10slowly and you expect that
31:12but you didn't expect
31:13chunks of it
31:14to fall away
31:15like they did.
31:19When you see something
31:21that anomalous
31:21on a critical system
31:22like the heat shield
31:23where there's no backup
31:25then that really raises
31:27your concerns.
31:31The technologies
31:32that we thought
31:33would be ready
31:34are not
31:36because there were
31:37some charring
31:39on Artemis 1
31:41that was one
31:42of the unexpected things.
31:46The dangers of re-entry
31:48are all too familiar
31:49to NASA.
31:50It looks like you can see
31:52pieces of the shuttle
31:54coming off.
31:58Columbia, Houston
31:59UHF comm check.
32:03Columbia, Houston
32:04UHF comm check.
32:08Damage to the thermal
32:09protection system
32:10led to the breakup
32:11of Columbia
32:12on its return
32:13to Earth.
32:15As with Challenger
32:17seven astronauts
32:19lost their lives.
32:22The space shuttle
32:23had two major disasters
32:25and 14 astronauts died.
32:27That has weighed heavily
32:29on NASA,
32:30on America
32:30and it's definitely
32:32something that has
32:33affected this mission
32:34in other human
32:35spaceflight missions.
32:37The launch
32:38of Artemis 2
32:39is postponed
32:40as NASA investigates
32:42what went wrong
32:43with the heat shield
32:44and how best
32:45to proceed
32:46with the mission.
32:51While engineers
32:52search for a solution
32:54to the heat shield problem,
32:56the astronauts
32:56continue training.
32:59Today,
32:59they're in the Orion
33:01simulator,
33:02practicing each maneuver,
33:03engine burn,
33:04and course correction.
33:07Even communicating
33:08with mission control
33:09is a training exercise.
33:12Got you, Vernon.
33:14Got you.
33:17There is a lot of training.
33:18If we were to boil it
33:20all down,
33:21we could probably get it
33:22done in under a year,
33:23but we are also flying
33:24this vehicle
33:24for the first time.
33:25So we do need
33:26to spend
33:27a lot more time
33:28than the next crew
33:29will have to spend
33:30on just all
33:31of the what-ifs.
33:34All right,
33:34we're starting to plow.
33:35I see good numbers.
33:37I concur.
33:40During the mission,
33:41they'll be testing
33:42the human systems
33:43that couldn't be tested
33:44on Artemis 1.
33:47Flight control,
33:48navigation,
33:49and life support.
33:52We are talking
33:52to the engineers,
33:53going through
33:54every single detail
33:55with them.
33:56We're road testing
33:57the training.
33:57We're road testing
33:58the preparation
33:59towards launch.
34:00We're road testing
34:01all of that.
34:01That's our job.
34:03There's the moon.
34:06Nice.
34:08Looks like we're
34:09pointing in the way,
34:09driving.
34:11There is no substitute
34:13for preparation.
34:14There's no substitute
34:15for having an intimate
34:16knowledge of what
34:17you're doing.
34:18And what that allows
34:19you to do is generate
34:20options when things
34:21go wrong.
34:21As we say in the military,
34:23you train hard,
34:24what you find easy.
34:28On the Artemis 2 mission,
34:31the astronauts
34:31aren't going to do
34:32much flying.
34:32They're going to do
34:33some demonstrations,
34:33but that's not essential.
34:35Orion could fly itself
34:36to around the moon.
34:37But in emergencies,
34:39you do want humans flying.
34:41That's what they trained for.
34:43We're in Houston.
34:44Looks like a good burn.
34:45Okay.
34:46Excellent news, Houston.
34:47We saw a good burn
34:49and all good indications
34:50up here as well.
34:51There's more steps to this
34:52than maybe it was
34:52I often get asked,
34:54why put people in space?
34:56We have robotic missions.
34:57We have AI.
34:58Why have humans?
35:02To me, they are critical
35:04because they are literally
35:05the eyes and the ears
35:07of the mission.
35:08If something goes wrong,
35:10you just need that
35:11human ingenuity
35:12to find solutions.
35:15NASA had a stark reminder
35:16of this in June 2024
35:18when the Boeing Starliner
35:20malfunctioned.
35:23And we have our first views
35:25of Starliner
35:26from the International
35:27Space Station.
35:30Starliner mission,
35:33that was supposed to fly
35:34itself essentially
35:35to the space station.
35:37And as it got
35:39sort of to within
35:40a few kilometers,
35:42thrusters started blinking out.
35:46Butch Wilmore,
35:47who was the commander
35:48of that mission,
35:48took control.
35:51Estimated conduct
35:52a little bit more
35:53than two minutes.
35:56His actions
35:57were pretty heroic
35:59in terms of guiding
36:00that spacecraft
36:03to the space station safely.
36:10If a human had not
36:11been on board,
36:12that mission
36:13would have been lost.
36:15Nice to be attached
36:16to the big city
36:17in the sky.
36:20After a two-year
36:22investigation
36:22into the safety
36:23of the heat shield,
36:25NASA finally announces
36:26its conclusions.
36:29They blame the damage
36:30on the skip entry maneuver,
36:32which was used
36:34on Artemis I
36:35to slow down
36:36the capsule
36:37during re-entry.
36:40This is a technique
36:42we use coming back
36:43from the moon
36:44because the velocity
36:46is much greater
36:47than coming back
36:49from low Earth orbit.
36:53They were trying
36:54a different re-entry
36:55procedure,
36:56a skip entry.
36:58So that's where
36:59the spacecraft dips
37:00into the Earth's atmosphere,
37:01once.
37:03Then it creates
37:04a small amount of lift.
37:06It exits the Earth's atmosphere.
37:09And then it comes back
37:10in a second time
37:11for the re-entry.
37:15And by doing
37:16that skip maneuver,
37:17it meant that layers
37:19of gas were trapped
37:20inside the heat shield.
37:21So when it came
37:22into the Earth's atmosphere
37:23for the second time,
37:24those gases had to escape.
37:26And that caused cracking
37:28and chunks of the heat shield
37:29to come off.
37:34NASA decides to keep
37:36the existing heat shield
37:37design for Artemis II,
37:39but to ditch
37:40the double-dip
37:41skip entry.
37:46Instead,
37:47Artemis II will make
37:48what engineers call
37:49a ballistic entry
37:51with a single,
37:52steeper profile,
37:53as if the capsule
37:55has been fired
37:56like a bullet
37:57from a gun.
37:59But will it work?
38:03We don't know.
38:04I mean,
38:06engineering,
38:07the models,
38:07all the modeling
38:08suggests it will work.
38:10But all of that data
38:12suggested that
38:13with the skip re-entry
38:14on Artemis I,
38:15there wouldn't be
38:15heat shield loss.
38:18this is a compromise.
38:21They're keeping
38:21the existing heat shield
38:22because to design
38:23a new one
38:24would take
38:24an awful long time.
38:25But with all
38:27space missions,
38:27there is a risk.
38:29They've mitigated
38:30the risk as much
38:31as possible,
38:31but there is still
38:32always that risk
38:33that there could be
38:34a catastrophic failure
38:36and loss of life.
38:38I do think ultimately
38:40if Artemis is going
38:41to be carried out
38:42in any kind of a,
38:43you know,
38:44reasonable timeline,
38:45there will have to be
38:47some risks taken.
38:49I think we're seeing
38:50that with the Orion
38:52heat shield being flown
38:53as is on Artemis II.
38:57We'll be nervous
38:57coming in.
38:59You can't be not nervous.
39:01But you trust
39:02the architecture,
39:03you trust the engineering,
39:04and it's going to work out.
39:22Now, this is the start
39:24of a very long journey.
39:26We ended our last
39:28human exploration
39:29of the moon
39:29in Apollo 17,
39:31the 17th mission.
39:33Now, I hope someday
39:34my kids are going
39:35to be watching
39:35maybe decades
39:36into the future,
39:37the Artemis 100 mission.
39:40We should be able
39:41to undertake repeatable,
39:43affordable missions
39:44to and from the moon.
39:46The SLS rocket
39:47rolls slowly out
39:49to the launch pad.
39:51Top speed,
39:520.8 miles per hour.
39:55You four are about
39:57about to fly farther
39:58into space
39:58than any humans
39:59have ever flown.
40:00But how are you
40:01training your families
40:03as you get ready
40:04to leave them behind
40:05on Earth?
40:07Trying to train them
40:09honestly and openly.
40:10With my kids,
40:11I told them,
40:11here's where the will is,
40:13here's where the trust
40:13documents are,
40:14and if anything happens
40:15to me,
40:15here's what's going
40:16to happen to you.
40:16It's our families
40:17that we think about
40:18the most on launch day.
40:20After 12 hours,
40:22the rocket arrives
40:23at its destination,
40:25launch pad 39B.
40:33But in February,
40:35it has to roll back again
40:37into the vehicle
40:38assembly building.
40:41Engineers have discovered
40:43two problems,
40:44a hydrogen leak
40:45and a helium flow issue.
40:53By March,
40:54the rocket has been repaired
40:56and it rolls out again.
41:00NASA sets a new launch date,
41:03April 1st, 2026.
41:10About nine hours
41:11prior to liftoff,
41:12we'll wake up.
41:13They're going to take
41:14our temperature,
41:14our weight,
41:14our blood pressure.
41:16Once that's complete,
41:17it's time to go
41:18start getting dressed.
41:19And we'll go
41:19into the suit room.
41:23They'll leak check us,
41:24make sure our suit
41:26holds pressure.
41:28And then when that's complete,
41:29we wait until
41:31it's time to walk out.
41:41From the moment
41:42that you walk out
41:43to go out
41:44to the launch pad,
41:45you're on this
41:45extremely choreographed timeline.
41:51We are now under
41:52an hour
41:53from the opening
41:55of our two-hour launch window
41:56at 6.24 p.m.
41:59Eastern time.
42:01Rocket science
42:02has hundreds
42:02or thousands of things
42:03that all have to go
42:04just right.
42:05It all has to be perfect.
42:07The rocket has to launch
42:08within this window.
42:09If it doesn't launch
42:10in this window,
42:11it can't go today.
42:16You get to T-minus 10 minutes,
42:1810 minutes to go
42:19in the countdown.
42:20They'll pause it there
42:21for about 30 minutes.
42:22They'll go through
42:23and ask basically everyone
42:24if they're part of the rocket
42:26or the spacecraft
42:26is good to go.
42:33If there's a reading
42:34out of bounds
42:35during that time,
42:36then the countdown
42:37will be stopped
42:38and the launch
42:38will be scrubbed
42:39for the day.
42:40Artemis 2 crew
42:41is go for launch.
42:44I copy that.
42:45Good luck.
42:47Godspeed, Artemis 2.
42:49Let's go.
42:5210, 9, 8, 7, RS-25
42:57Injures.
42:58Hit.
42:594, 3, 2, 1.
43:02Booster ignition.
43:04And liftoff.
43:06Go!
43:12The crew of Artemis 2
43:14now bound for the moon.
43:17Humanity's next great voyage begins.
43:21Good roll pitch.
43:23Roger, roll pitch.
43:33Mission Control, Houston
43:35seeing good performance
43:36in the orbit engines.
43:37Three miles in altitude.
43:40Traveling more than
43:411,200 miles per hour.
43:45The rocket powers its way
43:47into orbit
43:48as designed by
43:50by the engineers
43:50at Marshall Space Flight Center.
43:56Confirmed separation.
44:01Now passing 5,000 miles per hour.
44:05Houston Integrity.
44:07Good last genesis.
44:08Great view.
44:10Integrity.
44:11Nominal NECO.
44:12Core stage separated.
44:15For this voyage,
44:17the crew has named
44:18their ship
44:19Integrity.
44:22It's now traveling
44:23beyond low-Earth orbit,
44:26heading for the moon.
44:30We know that there was
44:32some talk about
44:32some burnt smell
44:34from the heaters.
44:36So we just thought
44:37we'd check in with you.
44:40The astronauts
44:40test the life support systems,
44:43exercise for 30 minutes daily.
44:47Christina Cook
44:48taking the camera.
44:50And even deal
44:51with a toilet issue.
44:53To show us
44:53a wastewater dump.
44:55As they adjust
44:56to life
44:56in deep space.
44:58Your body
44:59is being bombarded
45:01by galactic cosmic rays.
45:03And actually
45:04we see that
45:04as astronauts
45:05when we're falling asleep.
45:06You close your eyes
45:07and before you actually
45:09drop off
45:09you'll see several flashes.
45:12Like bright streaks of light
45:13going across your eye.
45:15And you know
45:16that that's a high energy particle
45:18striking the back
45:18of your retina.
45:19It's quite pretty
45:20to look at
45:21but it's not
45:22when you realize
45:23the damage
45:23that that could be doing
45:24to your body.
45:25And that could cause
45:26some form of cancer.
45:35Good morning
45:36Houston
45:37from Inside Integrity.
45:39On day six
45:40Integrity reaches the moon.
45:45The crew will do
45:47a seven hour flyby
45:48capturing high quality
45:50images
45:50of the moon's surface.
45:52Going farther from Earth
45:54than any crew
45:56has gone before.
45:58But first
45:59they want to name
46:00a crater
46:01located at the western edge
46:03of the moon's near side.
46:05A number of years ago
46:07we started this journey
46:08in our close-knit
46:09astronaut family
46:10and we lost a loved one.
46:14Her name was Carol
46:15the spouse of Reed
46:17the mother
46:18of Katie and Ellie.
46:21and we would like
46:22to call it Carol
46:24and you spell that
46:25C-A-R-R-O-L-L.
46:41On the ground
46:42the science team
46:43is receiving live reports
46:44as the astronauts
46:46fly by the moon
46:47observing different
46:49geological features.
46:51I think Copernicus
46:53is the easternmost feature
46:55that we can see.
46:56A very nice ring
46:58to the north
46:59and the south
47:00is with a lot of terrain
47:01shadow features.
47:05We are getting
47:06a sneak preview
47:07from one of our
47:08saw cameras
47:09of what you're looking at
47:10and we see some
47:10of what you're describing.
47:12We love it.
47:16The Artemis 2 crew
47:17has been trained
47:18to observe the moon
47:20to find significant features.
47:23As a spacecraft
47:24goes around the moon
47:25an astronaut can look
47:26at a spot
47:27from different angles.
47:28It might take
47:29a spacecraft years
47:30to have that trajectory
47:31where they can see
47:32all those angles.
47:34Something I've never seen
47:35in photographs before
47:36but is very apparent
47:38all the new craters
47:39some of them
47:40are super tiny.
47:41There's a couple
47:42that really stand out
47:43obviously
47:44and they are so bright
47:46compared to the rest
47:47of the moon.
47:50The flyby ends
47:52with a final flourish.
47:59A total solar eclipse
48:02seen from space.
48:05The sun has spawned
48:08behind the moon
48:09and the corona
48:10is still visible
48:12and it creates a halo
48:13almost around
48:14the entire moon
48:14but when you get
48:15to the earth side
48:16the earth's shine
48:17has already shown
48:18and the moon
48:18is just hanging
48:19in front of us.
48:22This black orb
48:23out in front of us.
48:25Wow.
48:26It's amazing.
48:29No matter how long
48:30we look at this
48:31our brains
48:32are not processing
48:33this image
48:34in front of us.
48:36There's no adjectives
48:37I'm going to need
48:38to invent some new ones
48:39to describe
48:39what we are looking
48:41at out this window.
48:46Wow.
48:47This is so cool.
48:49But as the sun
48:50comes out
48:50it's time for the Artemis
48:52crew to head home.
49:00On day 10
49:01integrity separates
49:03from the service module
49:06and falls to earth.
49:10Re-entry
49:11I think is probably
49:12the most critical part
49:13of the mission.
49:14You can see the reflection
49:15of one of the crew members
49:16in the window.
49:18You're testing
49:19the Orion heat shield
49:20which had some failure
49:21during Artemis 1.
49:24In terms of pucker factor
49:25for me
49:26that re-entry
49:26will be the highest part.
49:31There's no getting rounded.
49:32It is a time
49:34of trepidation
49:35and it is one
49:36of those moments
49:36where you wish
49:38them Godspeed.
49:40And we have crossed
49:42the threshold
49:42now entering
49:43the earth's atmosphere.
49:48This will be
49:49a six minute
49:49blackout period.
49:50No voice,
49:51no data
49:52from the crew.
49:54Integrity's traveling
49:5525,000 miles per hour.
49:58Faster than Artemis 1
50:00whose heat shield
50:02was badly damaged.
50:05So that pinpoint
50:06of light
50:07shows the vehicle.
50:08The first tug of gravity
50:10being felt
50:10by Integrity's astronauts.
50:13The minutes
50:14tick by.
50:18We're getting
50:19intermittent views
50:22still waiting
50:22to establish
50:23voice communication.
50:28Integrity,
50:28Houston.
50:30Com check post blackout.
50:35Houston,
50:36Integrity,
50:37we have you loud and clear.
50:39Big cheers from the view
50:41moving here
50:41in mission control
50:42as voice communication
50:44reestablished
50:45with Commander
50:45Reid Wiseman.
50:48We see three
50:49good looking parachutes.
50:51Integrity copies.
50:57NASA's gamble
50:58has paid off.
50:59The heat shield
51:00has done its job.
51:04Mission accomplished.
51:05land in command now.
51:08Splash down and confirmed.
51:16The first crew member
51:17is out of integrity.
51:21My hope
51:22is that this is just
51:23the beginning
51:24of not Artemis 3, 4, 5,
51:26but Artemis 30, 50,
51:27and then you have
51:29a growing community
51:30on the moon,
51:32potentially on Mars,
51:33throughout the solar system.
51:36The really hard work
51:37for Artemis
51:38is still ahead of us.
51:39and let's see.
52:08Mars historically
52:09can come here
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