All articles tagged with #artemis 2
Artemis 2 ended with a safe splashdown off the San Diego coast after a record-breaking four‑person lunar flyby, marking the first crewed return from lunar distance in more than 50 years and setting the stage for Artemis 3 and a broader Moon program aiming for a southern moon‑pole outpost.
NASA’s Artemis 2 mission uses a surprisingly practical mix of cameras—15 mounted on the Orion spacecraft and 17 used by the crew—headlined by Nikon’s D5 DSLR and Z9 mirrorless, plus GoPro action cams and an iPhone 17 Pro Max. The gear list includes the D5 with an 80-400mm lens, a selection of Nikon primes and zooms (35mm f/2D, Z14-24mm f/2.8, 14-24mm f/2.8 ED, 24-70mm f/2.8), the FTZ II adapter, the Z9’s newer optics, along with consumer picks (GoPro Hero 13 and iPhone 17 Pro Max). Space.com notes prices and affiliate links for shoppers to buy similar gear, underscoring NASA’s preference for reliable legacy bodies combined with modern mirrorless tech.
NASA says Artemis 2 can safely re-enter with the same Avcoat heat shield used for Artemis 1, thanks to a lofted skip-entry trajectory that preserves shield permeability and vents gas, addressing the earlier damage seen in Artemis 1. The confidence rests on extensive testing and flight data, though using the current shield means a slightly reduced ability to dodge bad weather at splashdown, and some critics remain skeptical of the approach.
NASA’s Artemis 2 crew—commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen—wrap up a 10-day lunar mission and are set to splash down off California. Live coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. EDT today, with splashdown expected around 8:07 p.m. EDT. The Orion capsule will reenter at up to ~24,000 mph, deploy parachutes, and be recovered by the USS John Murtha. Viewers can watch on Space.com, NASA channels, and via NASA streaming and other services (Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.).
A Virtual Telescope Project will livestream Artemis 2's return to Earth tonight, tracking Orion with robotic telescopes in Italy as it speeds home. The event starts at 10:45 p.m. EDT (02:45 GMT) on April 9, with a splashdown expected in the Pacific on April 10, weather permitting.
Artemis 2 astronaut Christina Koch posed for a space selfie aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft, captured with a modified GoPro mounted on a solar-panel wing and featuring the zero-G indicator 'Rise' during the lunar flyby of the 10-day mission.
As Artemis 2 heads home, NASA says Artemis 3 is on track for 2027 to test docking and a crewed lunar landing with SpaceX Starship HLS and Blue Origin's Blue Moon, while orbit choices and lander readiness remain under discussion and a recent Inspector General report flags gaps in testing and crew-survival analyses.
During Artemis 2’s record‑breaking lunar flyby, the four astronauts shared an emotional moment as commander Reid Wiseman and his crewmates honored his late wife Carroll Wiseman by proposing Carroll Crater; Wiseman invited Jeremy Hansen to deliver the tribute while Christina Koch cried, calling it the mission’s pinnacle moment. The crew then completed the flyby of the Moon’s far side and witnessed a solar eclipse from lunar orbit before heading home for a Pacific splashdown on April 10. They also surfaced plans to name Integrity Crater after their Orion capsule, but both crater names must be approved by the International Astronomical Union before appearing on maps.
Artemis 2's crew—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen—will return from the moon by plunging into Earth’s atmosphere at about 23,840 mph (38,367 kph) around 75 miles up, in a roughly eight-minute fiery reentry before a splashdown in the Pacific off San Diego on April 10. To reduce heat-stress after Artemis 1’s heat-shield damage, Orion will enter at a steeper angle and rely on its Avcoat heat shield, with parachutes deploying to slow the capsule for a Navy recovery after touchdown.
Artemis 2’s Universal Waste Management System on the Orion spacecraft is showing multiple toilet problems, including a jammed urine-collection fan, a burning odor, and difficulty venting stored urine. NASA says the system remains usable but relies on contingency urine bags while engineers search for a root cause—currently suspected to be debris clogging a filter rather than icing—before Orion returns for full analysis after splashdown. The hiccups, while inconvenient, are a critical debugging step for refining the waste-management system for future Moon and Mars missions.
Artemis 2 astronauts captured a stunning view of the Milky Way’s galactic plane from the Orion capsule, with the pink Homunculus Nebula around Eta Carinae visible in the frame, taken just after their lunar flyby that briefly cut communications with Earth; the crew will perform trajectory corrections as they head back to Earth on their 10‑day mission.
During Artemis 2’s far-side lunar flyby, astronauts observed multiple micrometeorite impacts on the Moon, prompting audible cheers from NASA’s Science Evaluation Room; scientists were surprised by the frequency of impacts and will study the flashes to better understand the lunar environment, noting a solar eclipse during closest approach and marking the first crewed lunar-spaceflight since Apollo 17.
Artemis 2’s crew is documenting the mission with iPhones on board (iPhone 17s, not connected to the internet) along with GoPros and Nikon cameras, capturing Earth, crew moments, and the lunar flyby. The effort accompanies a historic far-side lunar trajectory that set the record for farthest-ever human spaceflight, and signals a growing role for smartphones in space photography as the Orion crew (Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen) heads back to Earth.
Artemis 2 pilot Victor Glover says he listens to Gil Scott‑Heron’s 1970 poem-song Whitey on the Moon every Monday to stay grounded in the human realities behind space exploration, a perspective he says informs NASA’s moon mission as he and three crewmates prepare for a 10-day lunar flyby that would make him the first person of color to visit the Moon.
NASA’s Artemis 2 will launch four astronauts aboard the SLS/Orion for a 10-day loop around the Moon, marking the first crewed lunar flight in more than five decades. Following fixes to prior hydrogen leaks and a helium-flow issue, NASA declared go for a Wednesday launch window (6:24 p.m. ET, two hours); a Thursday 7:22 p.m. ET window is the backup. The test flight will validate SLS/Orion operations ahead of a 2028 crewed lunar landing.