NASA SLS Artemis 1 successfully launches to orbit!!!

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NASA's Artemis I Orion capsule flies past record distance set by Apollo 13

Houston, we have a new record holder.

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NASA's Artemis I Orion capsule flies past record distance set by Apollo 13​

NASA's Orion spacecraft looked back at Earth on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2022 using a camera mounted on one of its solar arrays. The uncrewed capsule flew past the record distance from Earth set by the 1970 Apollo 13 command module two days later. (Image credit: NASA/collectSPACE.com)

NASA's Artemis I Orion capsule has now traveled farther beyond Earth than any spacecraft designed to carry astronauts.

The uncrewed Orion flew past the record-setting distance(opens in new tab) achieved by the Apollo 13 command module "Odyssey" at 248,655 miles from Earth (216,075 nautical miles or 400,171 kilometers) at about 8:40 a.m. EST (1340 GMT) on Saturday (Nov. 26).

The Apollo 13 spacecraft had previously set the record on April 14, 1970, at 7:21 p.m. EST (0021 GMT on April 15).

"It didn't register [with] me then. We were so busy with our heads down that we just didn't have time to think about it," Gerry Griffin, former flight director who helped lead Mission Control during the Apollo 13 mission, said in a NASA-led Twitter Spaces panel discussion(opens in new tab) on Tuesday (Nov. 12). "In fact, until just about a year ago, I had no idea we had gone the farthest from Earth on Apollo 13. I figured we'd done it on some other mission."

The original flight plan for Apollo 13 did not have the spacecraft traveling so far away. As is now widely known (having been depicted in a 1995 Hollywood movie), the mission suddenly switched from targeting a moon landing to safely bringing the astronauts back to Earth after a mid-flight explosion tore through the vehicle's service module.

Apollo 13 reached the distance it did because there was an emergency need to use the moon's gravity to slingshot the spacecraft back to Earth as quickly and as safely as possible.

Similarly, the Artemis I flight profile was not designed specifically to break the Apollo 13 record. It only did so because NASA sent the Orion into a lunar distant retrograde orbit.


"Artemis I was designed to stress the systems of Orion and we settled on the distant retrograde orbit as a really good way to do that," said Jim Geffre, NASA's Orion spacecraft integration manager. "It just so happened that with that really large orbit, high altitude above the moon, we were able to pass the Apollo 13 record. But what was more important though, was pushing the boundaries of exploration and sending spacecraft farther than we had ever done before."


Orion did not stop at the Apollo 13 distance. NASA expects the Artemis I capsule to reach a maximum distance from Earth of 268,553 miles (432,194 km) at 4:06 p.m. EST (2106 GMT) on Monday (Nov. 28). From there it will continue traveling halfway around the moon until firing its orbital maneuvering system engine(opens in new tab) to leave the distant retrograde orbit, setting up its second close pass to the lunar surface(opens in new tab) on Dec. 5, followed by its return to Earth on Dec. 11.

The Apollo 13 record is not the only connection Artemis I has to the 1970 mission.


Although Orion does not have a crew, it is flying instrumented manikins to measure radiation exposure and the stresses a crew member would experience on a flight to the moon and back. One of the stand-ins, the only-full body example, was named "Commander Moonikin Campos"(opens in new tab) after the late Arturo Campos, who during the Apollo 13 mission wrote the emergency procedures to transfer power from the Apollo lunar module batteries to the command module, enabling Odyssey to have enough electricity to reach a safe splashdown(opens in new tab).


Campos, who died in 2004, was the electrical power subsystem manager for the lunar module, and his colleagues in the Mission Evaluation Room and Mission Operations Control Room were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their efforts.

NASA map showing the path that the Artemis I mission is following out around the moon and back to Earth in 25 days. (Image credit: NASA)


As "Moonikin Campos" is not a real person, the Apollo 13 astronauts(opens in new tab) — James Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert — still hold the Guinness World Record(opens in new tab) for the "farthest distance from Earth reached by humans" at 248,655 miles (400,171 km). That may change though when NASA launches its next Artemis mission — the first to carry astronauts — tentatively slated for 2024.


"We may or may not break Apollo 13's human spaceflight distance record, but won't know until after we launch," Laura Rochon, a NASA's public affairs specialist, told collectSPACE.com. "Artemis II is a high Earth orbit, followed by a free return flyby of the moon. The Earth to moon distance is anywhere from 221,500 miles at perigee to 252,700 at apogee [356,500 to 407,700 km]; flyby altitudes range from about 4,000 to 12,000 miles [6,400 to 19,000 km] on the far side of the moon, so the total could be anywhere from around 225,500 to 265,000 miles [363,000 to 426,500 km] depending on launch date."

There is a NASA spacecraft that once carried a crew and has since traveled well beyond the Apollo 13 distance from Earth, having entered a heliocentric orbit. The Apollo 10 lunar module ("Snoopy(opens in new tab)") ascent stage would be the record holder today if it had been designed to carry humans to the Sun and its placement into a disposal orbit had not been after its use by the Apollo 10 crew was over, according to NASA.

 

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Artemis 1's Orion spacecraft enters orbit around the moon

The milestone moment occurred just before 5 p.m. ET on Friday (Nov. 25).

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Artemis 1's Orion spacecraft enters orbit around the moon​

Orion will spend a little less than a week in the DRO. The capsule will leave lunar orbit with an engine burn on Dec. 1, then start heading home to Earth. Orion will arrive here on Dec. 11 with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast, if all goes to plan.

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Wow! Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft captures live view of Earth and moon from deep space (video)

There's an epic livestream running on the Artemis 1 moon mission, showcasing live views of the Orion spacecraft as it flies in a distant retrograde lunar orbit.

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Wow! Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft captures live view of Earth and moon from deep space (video)​

Artemis 1's Orion spacecraft sees Earth and moon in epic time-lapse​

 

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NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft leaves moon's orbit to head home

Orion now begins its long journey back to Earth.

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NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft leaves moon's orbit to head home​

The uncrewed Orion spacecraft successfully completed a lunar departure burn on Thursday (Dec. 1) to begin heading home after successful moon orbits. The burn began at 4:54 p.m. EST (2154 GMT) and lasted just under two minutes, according to NASA Television commentator Shaneequa Vereen.

"Orion has had a successful and nominal, 1 minute and 45 second, distant retrograde orbit departure burn," Vereen announced during the agency's broadcast of the burn. The spacecraft's solar panels could be seen gently rocking back and forth on NASA Television's live broadcast as a "tiny Earth" glowed in the background.

Orion now begins its ten-day trek home. If all goes according to plan, the capsule will splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on Dec. 11. NASA and the United States Navy have already begun training for the recovery operation that will mark the end of the Artemis 1 mission.

Orion launched atop NASA's massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in a fiery display on Nov. 16, kicking off the space agency's highly-anticipated Artemis 1 moon mission.

The mission is the first in the agency's Artemis program, which is aimed at establishing a sustainable crewed lunar outpost near the moon's south pole by the end of the decade.

The first Artemis mission was intended as a test for both the SLS vehicle and Orion spacecraft to ensure that both are flightworthy and safe to carry human crews into deep space. If Artemis 1 goes as planned, the next mission, Artemis 2, will launch astronauts into orbit around the moon in 2024. NASA will then return astronauts to the moon no earlier than 2025 with Artemis 3.

So far, Artemis 1 has met its benchmarks, according to NASA. Mission managers announced on Wednesday (Nov. 30) that the Nov. 16 launch of SLS showed the vehicle performed exactly as intended.

"The first launch of the Space Launch System rocket was simply eye-watering," Artemis mission manager Mike Sarafin said. "While our mission with Orion is still underway and we continue to learn over the course of our flight, the rocket's systems performed as designed and as expected in every case," he added.

 

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Landing:
Sunday Dec 11th 12:40 p.m. ET
Off the coast of California

Here's how NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft will splash down to end its moon mission in 8 not-so-easy steps

A skip, a re-entry and a series of parachute deployments will send Orion into the Pacific Ocean on Sunday (Dec. 11.)

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Here's how NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft will splash down to end its moon mission in 8 not-so-easy steps​

By Elizabeth Howell
published about 14 hours ago
A skip, a re-entry and a series of parachute deployments will send Orion into the Pacific Ocean on Sunday (Dec. 11.)

In its last few minutes in space, the Orion spacecraft has a big job to do.

The Artemis 1 mission launched the NASA Orion capsule safely into deep space on Nov. 16, and after a nearly month that saw it fly around the moon, it's time for the vehicle to come home.

Returning on Sunday (Dec. 11) won't be easy. Orion will do an unprecedented "skip" off the atmosphere of Earth before returning to our planet in earnest. Then it must deploy a series of parachutes to make a safe ocean splashdown within reach of U.S. Navy recovery ships.

Artemis 1's final moments need to go exceedingly well for NASA to approve future missions of the Artemis program, which are slated to continue with Artemis 2 bringing astronauts around the moon in 2024 and Artemis 3 landing upon the surface in 2025 or so.

The eight main steps of Orion's epic landing sequence are below.

1. ORION CAPSULE SEPARATES FROM SERVICE MODULE​

An artist's illustration of NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft separating from its service module built by the European Space Agency. (Image credit: NASA)

2. ORION BRIEFLY SKIPS OFF EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE​

Artist illustration of Orion skipping off the atmosphere. (Image credit: NASA)

After discarding its unneeded service module, which supplied electricity and power for nearly a month, Orion will do a daring skip maneuver off the edge of Earth's atmosphere. The capsule will use a bit of our protective envelope, along with associated lift, to skip just like a rock across the surface of a lake. This maneuver wasn't possible during the Apollo program, but advances in spacecraft navigation make that possible today.

"The skip entry will help Orion land closer to the coast of the United States, where recovery crews will be waiting to bring the spacecraft back to land," Chris Madsen, Orion guidance, navigation and control subsystem manager, said in a NASA statement(opens in new tab).

"When we fly crew in Orion beginning with Artemis 2, landing accuracy will really help make sure we can retrieve the crew quickly and reduces the number of resources we will need to have stationed in the Pacific Ocean to assist in recovery."

The maneuver will also reduce the g-forces future Artemis program astronauts will experience once the Orion capsule is crewed. "Instead of a single event of high acceleration, there will be two events of a lower acceleration of about four g's each," NASA wrote in the same statement. "The skip entry will reduce the acceleration load for the astronauts so they have a safer, smoother ride."

3. ORION ENTERS EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE​

Artist's impression of Orion re-entering Earth's atmosphere. (Image credit: NASA)

After the skipping maneuver, Orion will enter Earth's atmosphere at a blazing speed of 25,000 mph (40,000 km/h). At peak, its temperatures will soar to half of the sun's temperature, at 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,800 degrees Celsius), and really test out the Orion heat shield's ability to protect the spacecraft and any future passengers.

The heat shield is the largest of its type for astronaut missions, spanning 16.5 feet (5 meters) in diameter, according to NASA(opens in new tab). The heat shield includes a strong titanium truss with a composite "skin" made of flexible carbon fiber, along with an ablative material to deliberately shed some of the shield off into the atmosphere to take stress off the rest of the system and carry heat away from the spacecraft.

4. ORION OPENS PROTECTIVE BAY COVER FOR PARACHUTES​

A screenshot of Orion during the latter stages of reentry. (Image credit: NASA Television)

The capsule's parachutes must stay protected as Orion rides through the worst of re-entry, but as it gets closer to the ground they must pop out efficiently.

To do so, the spacecraft deploys a forward bay cover made out of titanium, which is both lightweight and extremely strong. Three 8-pound (4-kg) forward bay cover parachutes will ensure the cover's separation from the spacecraft.

"It's perfect for spaceflight, where every additional pound is more costly," Orion spacecraft maker Lockheed Martin notes of the cover technology(opens in new tab).

"Parachutes aren't built to withstand the 5,000-degree Fahrenheit [2,600 degree-Celsius] temperatures upon re-entry — they would be too heavy and unable to generate enough drag to slow the spacecraft down — so the forward bay cover protects them until just the right moment."

5. ORION OPENS DROGUE PARACHUTES​

Screenshot of Orion deploying its two drogue parachutes during a test in 2009. (Image credit: NASA Television)

Orion has several stages of parachutes to slow the spacecraft down. Following the three forward bay cover parachutes, at 25,000 feet (7,600 meters) will be the two drogue parachutes, which aim to slow Orion's speed to roughly 100 mph (160 km/h).

"Drogue parachutes are used to slow and stabilize the crew module during descent and establish proper conditions for main parachute deployment to follow," NASA writes(opens in new tab) of the technology.

The drogues are made of Kevlar/Nylon hybrid material and have a mass of about 80 pounds (36 kg) each. When inflated, each of the parachutes will be 100 feet (30 meters) long, between their attachment to the crew module and the top or crown.

6. ORION DEPLOYS PILOT PARACHUTES​

The pilot parachutes of Orion pull out the main parachute during a test in 2012. (Image credit: NASA)

Orion's drogue parachutes will then cut away, allowing for the three pilot parachutes to deploy. These parachutes are roughly 11 pounds (5 kg) in mass each and are also made of Kevlar/Nylon hybrid material.

The pilot parachutes will deploy when the Orion is roughly 9,500 feet (2,900 m) above the ground and traveling at 190 feet (130 m) per second.

This complicated parachute deployment illustrates a lot of technology, NASA says(opens in new tab), including the fabric of the chutes, "cannon-like mortars" to fire the various rounds of parachutes at the right time, and fuses to unfurl the parachutes carefully and swiftly.

7. ORION OPENS MAIN PARACHUTES​

Orion with its parachutes deployed during a drop test in 2012. (Image credit: NASA)

The last set of Orion's 11 parachutes are the three main parachutes. The pilot parachutes will pull the mains out, which should deploy and slow Orion down to only 20 mph (32 km/h). Each main parachute is roughly 265 feet long (80 meters) from top to attachment.

"Orion's parachute system was designed with crew safety in mind: it can withstand the failure of either one drogue or one main parachute, and it can ensure a secure landing in an emergency," NASA says(opens in new tab) of the technology, noting the more than decade of ground and air tests to validate the system.

8. ORION SPLASHES DOWN IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN​

Orion during a splashdown test in 2016. (Image credit: NASA)

Assuming all the parachutes work according to plan, Orion will then splash down off the coast of San Diego at 12:40 p.m. EST (1740 GMT). The U.S. Navy and an exploration ground systems recovery team from NASA's Kennedy Space Center will work together to retrieve the spacecraft. The prime ship assigned to recovery operations is the USS Portland.

"Before splashdown, the team will head out to sea in a Navy ship. At the direction of the NASA recovery director, Navy divers and other team members in several inflatable boats will be cleared to approach Orion," NASA says(opens in new tab) of the recovery operations.

"Divers will then attach a cable to the spacecraft and pull it by winch into a specially designed cradle inside the ship's well deck ... open water personnel will also work to recover Orion's forward bay cover and three main parachutes."

 

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Splashdown! NASA's Artemis 1 Orion capsule lands in Pacific to end epic moon mission

Orion landed safely off the coast of Mexico's Baja Peninsula at 12:40 p.m. EST on Sunday (Dec. 11).

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Splashdown! NASA's Artemis 1 Orion capsule lands in Pacific to end epic moon mission​

The first mission of NASA's Artemis moon program is in the books.


An uncrewed Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California this afternoon (Dec. 11), bringing a successful end to NASA's historic Artemis 1 moon mission after a 1.4 million-mile (2.3 million kilometers) flight. The splashdown occurred 50 years to the day of NASA's Apollo 17 moon landing, the last astronaut mission to touch down on the lunar surface.

"Splashdown! From Tranquility Base to Taurus-Littrow to the tranquil waters of the Pacific, the latest chapter of NASA's journey to the moon comes to a close: Orion back on Earth," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said during the agency's livestream of the event on Sunday. (Tranquility Base and Taurus-Littrow were the landing sites of Apollo 11 and Apollo 17, the first and final Apollo moon landing missions, respectively.)

Artemis 1 was a shakeout cruise for Orion, NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket and their associated ground systems. Further analyses await, but early indications are that all of this gear passed the test with flying colors — meaning NASA can likely start gearing up for the first crewed Artemis flight, a round-the-moon effort in 2024.

A delayed but picture-perfect launch​

NASA originally tried to launch Artemis 1 in late August, but several technical glitches, including a leak of liquid hydrogen propellant, pushed things back a month.

And then Mother Nature intervened. In late September, the Artemis 1 team rolled the SLS and Orion off Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida to shelter from Hurricane Ian. The Artemis 1 stack stayed inside KSC's huge Vehicle Assembly Building for more than a month, getting some upgrade and repair work done during that stretch.

Team members rolled the rocket and capsule back out to the pad on Nov. 4, seemingly after the end of hurricane season. However, another big storm slammed into the Space Coast on Nov. 10 — Nicole, which hit Florida as a Category 1 hurricane but quickly weakened to a tropical storm.

SLS and Orion weathered Nicole on the launch pad, and did so in good shape; inspections soon revealed that both vehicles were ready for liftoff. That launch — the first ever for the SLS and the second for Orion, which flew to Earth orbit briefly in December 2014 — occurred on Nov. 16, and it was a sight to behold.

The SLS sent Orion aloft exactly as planned. The huge rocket generated 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, making it the most powerful launcher ever to fly successfully.

"The first launch of the Space Launch System rocket was simply eye-watering," Artemis 1 mission manager Mike Sarafin said in a statement(opens in new tab) on Nov. 30.

Orion hits its marks​

Orion experienced a few hiccups during flight. Shortly after liftoff, for example, the capsule's navigating star trackers returned anomalous readings, a problem that the team soon traced to "dazzling" by Orion's thrusters. Overall, however, the capsule performed well during its debut journey beyond Earth orbit, checking off milestone after milestone as planned.

On Nov. 25, the capsule arrived in distant retrograde orbit (DRO) around the moon, a highly elliptical path that took Orion 40,000 miles (64,000 km) from the lunar surface at its most distant point.

On Nov. 26, the spacecraft got farther from Earth than any other spacecraft designed to carry humans, breaking the old record of 248,655 miles (400,171 km) set in 1970 by the Apollo 13 command module. Two days later, Orion reached its maximum distance from its home planet, extending the record to 268,563 miles (432,210 km).

Orion left the lunar DRO on Dec. 1, then headed for home with a 3.5-minute-long engine burn during a close flyby of the moon on Dec. 5. That long journey, and the 25.5-day-long Artemis 1 mission, finally came to an end on Sunday.


The timing was appropriate, coming 50 years to the day after Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt touched down on the moon. Cernan and Schmitt left the lunar surface on Dec. 14, 1972, and no humans have been back since.

Orion barreled into Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean, far off the western coast of South America, at 12:20 p.m. EST (1720 GMT) on Sunday. When that happened, the spacecraft was going about 25,000 mph (40,000 kph), or 32 times the speed of sound.

This tremendous speed generated huge amounts of friction, putting Orion's 16.5-foot-wide (5 meters) heat shield to the test. The heat shield, the biggest of its kind ever flown, endured temperatures around 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,800 degrees Celsius), or roughly half as hot as the surface of the sun.

A view of Earth from NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft as it approached splashdown time on Dec. 11, 2022. (Image credit: NASA)
Shortly after entering Earth's atmosphere, Orion left again, bouncing off the upper layers of air like a rock skipping off the surface of a pond. This "skip maneuver," which no human-rated spacecraft had ever performed before, allows the capsule to cover greater distances and land more precisely during reentry, NASA officials have said.

Orion's three main parachutes deployed at at 12:37 p.m. EST (1737 GMT), slowing the capsule's descent. The spacecraft splashed down right on schedule at 12:40 p.m. EST (1740 GMT), about 100 miles (160 km) off the west coast of the Baja Peninsula.

A U.S. Navy ship, the USS Portland, was waiting in the area. The Portland will haul Orion aboard and ferry it to port in San Diego, a journey that will take about a day, NASA officials have said. From there, Orion will travel to KSC for in-depth inspections and analysis.

"This is an extraordinary day," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told Navias shortly after splashdown. "It’s historic, because we are now going back into space — into deep space — with a new generation."

A view of Earth as seen from the Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft on its approach for reentry. (Image credit: NASA)

 

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Harrison Schmitt (the last man to walk on the moon) talks about Artemis/ SLS.