Although there is no human crew on the mission, it is the first step in the Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon and eventually land them on Mars. The Orion spacecraft will enter a distant retrograde orbit of the moon and travel 40,000 miles beyond it, going farther than any spacecraft designed to carry humans. Crews will board Artemis II in a similar orbit in 2024, and the first woman and next man to land on the moon are set to reach the lunar south pole in late 2025 with the Artemis III mission. The program also includes appearances by celebrities such as Jack Black, Chris Evans and Keke Palmer and performances of “The Star-Spangled Banner” by Josh Groban and Herbie Hancock and “America the Beautiful” by the Philadelphia Orchestra and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. . Once the launch takes place, NASA will hold a post-launch briefing, and later in the day, the agency will share the first views of Earth from the Orion spacecraft’s cameras. Orion’s journey will take 42 days as it travels to the moon, orbits it and returns to Earth — covering a total of 1.3 million miles (2.1 million kilometers). The capsule will launch into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on October 10. Here’s everything you can expect before, during and after launch.
Countdown to launch
The official countdown will begin on August 27 at 10:23 AM. ET. The call to stations will take place Saturday morning at the Kennedy Space Center, as well as for teams offering support from various centers around the country. This is when all the teams associated with the mission reach their consoles and report that they are ready, starting a two-day countdown. Over the weekend, engineers will power up the Orion spacecraft, the temporary cryogenic propulsion stage (the top of the rocket) and the core stage, charge the batteries and perform a final preparation for the engines. Late Sunday night into early Monday morning, the launch team will hold a briefing to discuss weather conditions and decide whether to go or no go to begin fueling the rocket. If all looks good, the team will begin fueling the rocket’s core stage eight hours before launch. Five hours before, the upper stage will begin fueling. The team will then top off and replenish any liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen spilled during the refueling process. About 50 minutes before launch, NASA’s test manager’s final briefing will take place. A scheduled 30-minute countdown will begin approximately 40 minutes prior to kickoff. The launch manager will poll the team to make sure each station is located 15 minutes before liftoff. At 10 minutes in, things kick into high gear as the spaceship and rocket go through the final stages. Much of the action takes place in the last minute, as the ground launch sequencer sends the command to the missile flight computer’s automated launch sequencer about 30 seconds before launch. In the final seconds, the hydrogen will burn, the four RS-25 engines will start, resulting in booster ignition and lift to T minus zero.
Trip to the moon
After liftoff, the solid rocket boosters will separate from the spacecraft about two minutes into flight and be ejected into the Atlantic Ocean, with other components also ejected shortly thereafter. The rocket’s core stage will separate about eight minutes later and fall toward the Pacific Ocean, allowing Orion’s solar array wings to deploy. The perigee lift maneuver will occur about 12 minutes after launch, when the ICPS undergoes a burn to raise Orion’s altitude so that it does not re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. Shortly after is the superlunar injection, when the ICPS increases Orion’s speed from 17,500 miles per hour (28,163 kilometers per hour) to 22,600 miles per hour (36,371 kilometers per hour) to escape Earth’s gravitational pull and start for the moon After this burn, ICPS will separate from Orion. Around 4:30 p.m., Orion will perform its first exit orbit correction burn using the European Service Module, which provides the spacecraft with power, propulsion and thermal control. This maneuver will put Orion on a path toward the moon. In the coming days after launch, Orion will make its way to the moon, coming within 60 miles (96 kilometers) during its closest approach to the lunar surface on the sixth day of the trip — or on Sept. 3 if the launch goes as planned scheduled for August 29. The service unit will place Orion in a distant retrograde orbit around the moon on September 10 or 7. Orion will surpass the distance record of 248,654 miles (400,169 kilometers) — set by Apollo 13 in 1970 — on Sept. 8 when it loops around the moon. The spacecraft will reach its maximum distance from Earth of 280,000 miles (450,616 kilometers) on September 23, when it will venture 40,000 miles (64,373 kilometers) beyond the Moon. That’s 30,000 miles (48,280 kilometers) further than Apollo 13’s record. Orion will make its second closest approach to the lunar surface, coming within 500 miles (804 kilometers) on October 3. The service module will experience a burn that allows the moon’s gravity to launch Orion back on its way to Earth. Just before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the service module will separate from Orion. The spacecraft will hit the top of Earth’s atmosphere traveling at about 25,000 miles per hour (40,233 kilometers per hour), and its heat shield will reach temperatures of nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius). The atmosphere will slow Orion to about 300 miles per hour (482 kilometers per hour), and a series of parachutes will slow it to less than 20 miles per hour (32 kilometers per hour) before it blasts off into the Pacific Ocean at 11:53 AM. m Splashdown will be streamed live from NASA’s website, gathering views from the 17 cameras on the recovery ship and the helicopters that will await Orion’s return. The landing and recovery team will collect the Orion capsule, and the data collected by the spacecraft will determine what lessons have been learned before humans return to the Moon.
