Artemis I Path to the Pad: Launch and Recovery

What President Kennedy said was that we choose to go to the moon and do other things not because it is easy but because it is difficult, the cost of failure is much greater than the cost of cleaning it up, we have an obligation to do it right, this is something completely new. vehicle a completely new technology a completely new purpose to return to the Moon in preparation to go to Mars is difficult the countdown to T minus zero begins about two days before lunch the teams inside the

launch

control center have been working around the clock hours a day firing up each section of the rocket and configuring the

launch

pad to withstand the 8.8 million pounds of thrust our moon rocket will generate upon liftoff.

It is a new creation. It's a new rocket on a new spacecraft that will send humans to the Moon on today's next flight. We make history with the launch of the most powerful rocket the world has ever seen. We are taking the first step in humanity's return to the Moon. I can tell you that there is energy and excitement around Kenny Space Center, I would say throughout the agency. and across the Space Coast as we get closer to this launch, this Mission will validate that the rocket and capsule are working as expected before future Artemis missions send astronauts to the lunar surface.

We have worked very hard to get here. The team has achieved it. Absolutely exceptional work and we are up to the challenge and I am looking forward to a successful test flight. You are watching the world's most powerful rocket and Orion spacecraft live on Launchpad 39b. Artemis 1 embodies the hard work of thousands of people around the world. world determined to explore for the benefit of all I'm Megan Cruz and this is Caleb or not Aaron when I first walked in and saw the view from the desk here I was blown away this is the moment when it's the countdown we know and then the tension begins and well, less.

Crossing each other, everything is working well, yes, the tension is rising and we are completely fired up here. Over the past few years, teams have spent thousands of hours running simulations and rehearsals to ensure they are ready for this moment. Zero Hour is approaching for the Artemis generation, we have a greater sense of anticipation and there is definitely excitement among the team members. We've noticed that the overall mood and focus within the team is definitely positive now that all systems are set up correctly at launch. The director takes the final step for takeoff on behalf of all the men and women of our great nation who have worked to bring this Hardware together to make this day possible and for the Artemis generation, this is for you right now.

Resume counting and launch Artemis one. This mission comes with many hopes and dreams of many people. It is no longer the Apollo generation, it is the Artemis generation that brings a whole new world of discoveries. T-minus 50 seconds and counting space launch system. Now it's the countdown to Orion's liftoff on your Moon Trip bait and here we go, okay, hydrogen burn igniters start seven six five four stages, engine start three two one and Artemis liftoff one, we'll ascend together back to the moon and beyond, all good. Foreign Space Center where we just watched Artemis launch our first step towards our next deep space adventure with Orion from ground mission control in Houston take the reins our nation is returning to the moon and we have worked hard as a team you I have worked tough as a team for this moment, this is your moment, it's no coincidence that you were here today, so I want you to look around, look at this team and know that you have earned it, you have earned your place in the room. you've earned earn your spot the successful launch of SLS is just the beginning Orion will spend the next few weeks traveling around the Moon sending flight data to teams here on Earth for real-time analysis during its mission Orion reached speeds traveling around 30 times faster than the speed of sound, this dramatic video of the Earth-Moon Transit that took place showed and highlighted the fact that we were moving away from our home planet at a distance of about 268 thousand miles from Earth, further than any human-rated spacecraft. had once traveled for a spacecraft designed to return humans to Earth, eclipsing the mark set by the Apollo 13 vehicle in 1970.

After several weeks of flight, it was time for Orion to return home half a century later, the NASA's new lunar explorer, the Orion spacecraft is returning home after circumnavigating the Moon and beyond in a distant retrograde elliptical orbit, now less than two hours away from landing in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California to complete its Shakedown mission as the Apollo missions of the past will have to do. endure incredibly high temperatures during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere a journey that began with the power launch of the Space Launch System 25 and a half days ago about to reach its final minutes in the scorching heat of re-entry where temperatures around Orion will build up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit as it reenters Earth's atmosphere, the spacecraft slowed to approximately 300 miles per hour as it continued its descent.

The Orion parachute system containing 11 parachutes in total was deployed once it reached approximately nine thousand feet and a speed of approximately 130 miles. per hour and there it is high above the new Ticket to travel to the Moon and beyond Pacific America now in sight Orion under its shoots descending towards Splashdown these parachutes help decelerate the crew module to a much more manageable speed approximately 20 miles per hour for a water landing off the California coast Landing from Tranquility base to Taurus liter to the insignificant waters of the Pacific the last chapter of NASA's Journey to the Moon comes to an end Orion returns to Earth laugh we have a perfect view a front row seat to the Orion Splashdown and it's just beautiful out here it's a human rated capsule that went around the moon and back and now it's in the Pacific Ocean.

I think I can say from the entire dive team that we are honored to be a part of history. and to be a part of something so monumental and to be ready, ready and excited to go out and do this when it was deemed safe to approach Orion, the team members jumped in the water and connected hardware that is stable to the capsule, well, we knew that in the NASA, that's really it. about collaborations and the collaborations we've had with the Department of Defense in particular over the last few years, their hard work and their dedication as they went through a lot of planning, hardware and process development and a lot of practice to get to this point. , makes it look easy and that team made up of a combination of NASA and Department of Defense personnel has worked years to make sure they were ready.

Melissa Jones, the

recovery

director, just came in from outside the ship's control center, where she was monitoring and of course managing her team in the midst of this

recovery

, so Melissa, thank you for being here, thank you for inviting me, it's been a long time coming, we've been working on this mission for a while and we've done a lot of training and every time you train with a model capsule you don't have any of that you don't have a parachute you don't know it you hear the explosions coming back into the atmosphere sonics and all that kind of stuff and today, that actually happened, it's just incredible, you know, this mission, the spacecraft and this team exceeded all expectations over the last 25 and a half days.

We have been looking forward to the next flight every day to see how we can improve where we are. today so we can fly a safe and successful Mission with our astronauts next time, once stabilized, the team secured the spacecraft with hardware and rope assemblies and towed it to the Navy ship, the dive team then connected Orion to A series of ropes from inside the rear of the ship known as The Well deck to safely pull the capsule inside with Orion safely secured inside the ship, the teams headed to Naval Base San Diego, where they were He unloaded the capsule and prepared for his cross-country trip back home. base at the Kennedy Space Center, this is really the beginning of a multi-mission campaign to take humans back to the Moon and beyond to Mars, so there is still a lot to do and this is just the beginning for Kennedy to surprise everyone with the Apollo.

The nation should commit to achieving the goal before the end of this decade and say that we were going to achieve what we thought was impossible: landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth. A lot has happened since then, but we knew we would make it. return this is the program of returning to the Moon to learn to live, to invent, to create, to explore Beyond, oh, it's a new day. A new day has dawned. A generation of Artemis is taking us there.