astronauts

NASA’s Artemis II astronauts have returned to Earth after completing the first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years, reaching the greatest distance ever travelled by humans. The crew successfully completed a parachute landing in the Pacific Ocean, after a high-speed re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere.

The Artemis II crew landed in the Pacific Ocean under parachutes after a high-speed re-entry that tested its heat shield.

NASA’s Artemis II astronauts have safely splashed down on Earth, completing a landmark mission that carried humans around the Moon and back for the first time in more than 50 years.

The crew successfully completed a parachute landing on Friday in the Pacific Ocean, after a high-speed re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere. Recovery teams were off the coast of California, waiting to retrieve them after their arrival at 5:07pm Pacific time (00:07 GMT).

The four astronauts will now undergo medical checks before returning to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA crew members Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, together with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, began a 10-day voyage from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center last week, travelling farther into space than any human ever has.

They looped around the far side of the moon, testing equipment in deep space, before propelling back to Earth on Friday.

Their mission was the first to the moon since the 1972 Apollo 17 mission, and their return caps a mission packed with technical milestones.

A new perspective on Earth

Artemis II is widely seen as a critical test flight for future Moon missions, particularly Artemis IV, which aims to land astronauts on the lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo era.

Engineers will now analyse key data from the mission, including the performance of the Orion capsule’s heat shield as well as navigation systems and life-support technology, all essential for safely carrying humans deeper into space.

The return also included one of the most challenging phases of the journey: a brief communication blackout during re-entry, caused by intense heat building up around the spacecraft.

But on top of its record-setting distance, the mission also marked other historic firsts. Glover became the first person of colour to travel around the moon, Koch the first woman, and Hansen the first non-American.

During their journey, the crew reported in vivid detail features of the lunar surface and later witnessed a solar eclipse as well as meteorite impacts.

Mission commander Wiseman reflected that “what we really hoped in our soul is that we could, for just a moment, have the world pause — and remember that this is a beautiful planet in a very special place in our universe”.

“We should all cherish what we have been gifted.”

Every morning since the astronauts’ departure, NASA has sent a song to Artemis II to start the day. On Friday, the astronauts awoke to the tune of Live’s song Run to the Water and the country hit Free, by Zac Brown Band.

‘It’s a historic day… but don’t forget to enjoy the view.’
Four astronauts from NASA’s Artemis II mission have broken the record for the farthest human travel from Earth. The record of 400,171km was set by Apollo 13 in April 1970.

April 2 (UPI) — The Artemis II astronauts have completed their perigee raise burn as part of a planned orbital adjustment and are headed back into a four-hour rest period, NASA said.

After an earlier rest period, the astronauts were awakened at 7:06 a.m. EDT for the perigee burn. NASA played the song “Sleepyhead” by Young and Sick to wake them up.

In the perigee burn, the spacecraft lit its main engine for 43 seconds, which raised the lowest point of its orbit. This helps prevent the craft from re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. It also refines the trajectory of the craft as it circles Earth. It put Orion into a stable high-Earth orbit, which aligns with its path to the moon.

The crew will now have another four-and-a-half-hour rest period, then they will be awakened to start their first full day in space.

Later today, the mission management team will have its first meeting of the mission to assess the spacecraft’s systems and will give its approval for the upcoming translunar injection burn. That burn will send astronauts out of Earth’s orbit and toward the Moon for the first time in 50 years. It will last just over six minutes and will speed the craft to escape Earth’s gravitational pull.

The launch on Wednesday evening began at 6:35 p.m. EDT from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Soon after launch, Wiseman told operators on the ground, “We have a beautiful moonrise, we’re headed right at it.”

There was a small glitch in the craft’s space toilet, Space.com reported.

“The toilet fan is reported to be jammed,” NASA spokesperson Gary Jordan said during live mission commentary. “Now the ground teams are coming up with instructions on how to get into the fan and clear that area to revive the toilet for the mission.”

NASA Director of Flight Operations Norm Knight told reporters that the problem was a controller issue on the toilet in urine collection. The astronauts were able to use a backup system until the engineers fixed the problem before their first rest period.

About 9 minutes after the launch, the crew entered Earth’s orbit, traveling about 15,000 mph. They are expected to enter the moon’s orbit in about six days, travel around it and then return to Earth.

The four-person crew are: NASA’s Commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen.