PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The four astronauts manning NASA’s Artemis II mission are scheduled to splash down Friday off the coast of San Diego, closing out humanity's first voyage to the moon in more than half a century.
The Artemis II astronauts are wrapping up 10 days in space, during which they strayed further from Earth than any humans before them, and observed features of the far side of the moon previously unseen by the naked eye.
Chief Astronomer at the Franklin Institute, Derrick Pitts, said there are major risks to reentry.
“If the reentry angle is off, either the spacecraft plunges into the earth’s atmosphere–generating far higher temperatures than planned for–or if the angle is too shallow, they skip off the earth’s atmosphere and head out into space,” he said.
Their pressurized capsule also needs to stay tightly sealed, and they need to reenter at the right time to land in the planned spot.
NASA is used to this part of the mission. Getting people to the moon was an endeavor NASA hadn’t carried out in more than 50 years. Pitts said in the meantime, they’ve had plenty of practice on splashdowns.
"The astronauts who return from the International Space Station every 4-to-6 months experience the reentry just like we’re talking about now,” he said.
The four astronauts expect to splash down shortly after 8 p.m. Eastern/5 p.m. Pacific, before being extracted from the Orion spacecraft and flown to the USS John P. Murtha.
Artemis II's record flyby and lunar views
Launched from Florida on April 1, the astronauts racked up one win after another as they deftly navigated NASA’s long-awaited lunar comeback, the first major step in establishing a sustainable moon base.
Artemis II didn't land on the moon or even orbit it. But it broke Apollo 13's distance record, making Wiseman and his crew the farthest that humans have ever journeyed from Earth when they reached 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers). Then, in the mission's most heart-tugging scene, the teary astronauts asked permission to name a pair of craters after their moonship and Wiseman's late wife, Carroll.
During the record-breaking flyby, they documented scenes of the lunar far side never seen before by the naked eye and savored a total solar eclipse courtesy of the cosmos thanks to their launch date. The eclipse, in particular, “just blew all of us away,” Glover said.
Their sense of wonder and love awed everyone, as did their breathtaking pictures of the moon and Earth. The Artemis II crew channeled Apollo 8's first lunar explorers with Earthset, showing our blue marble setting behind the gray moon. It was reminiscent of Apollo 8’s famous Earthrise shot from 1968.
“It just makes you want to continue to go back,” Radigan said on the eve of splashdown. “It's the first of many trips and we just need to continue on because there’s so much” more to learn about the moon.
Their moonshot drew global attention as well as star power, earning props from President Donald Trump; Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney; Britain's King Charles III; Ryan Gosling, star of the latest space flick “Project Hail Mary”; Scarlett Johansson of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; and even Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner of TV’s original “Star Trek.”
Artemis II was a test flight for future moon missions
Despite its rich scientific yield, the nearly 10-day flight was not without technical issues. Both the capsule’s drinking water and propellant systems were hit with valve problems. In perhaps the most high-profile predicament, toilet trouble prevented the crew from using it for No. 1 most of the trip, forcing them to resort to old-time bags and funnels.
The astronauts shrugged it all off.
“We can’t explore deeper unless we are doing a few things that are inconvenient,” Koch said, “unless we’re making a few sacrifices, unless we’re taking a few risks, and those things are all worth it.”
Added Hansen: “You do a lot of testing on the ground, but your final test is when you get this hardware to space and it’s a doozy.”
Under the revamped Artemis program, next year’s Artemis III will see astronauts practice docking their capsule with a lunar lander or two in orbit around Earth. Artemis IV will attempt to land a crew of two near the moon’s south pole in 2028.
The Artemis II crew’s allegiance was to those next Artemis crews, Wiseman said.
“But we really hoped in our soul is that we could for just for a moment have the world pause and remember that this is a beautiful planet and a very special place in our universe, and we should all cherish what we have been gifted,” he said.
