Artemis II astronauts embark on voyage around the moon

[0:00] a day after liftoff artemis ii is now well on its way four astronauts on a 10-day voyage around the [0:07] moon and back traveling deeper into space than any human ever before for what's happening now [0:13] and what comes next i'm joined by our science correspondent that is miles o'brien who is just [0:18] back from witnessing that historic launch yesterday miles it's great to see you so give us [0:22] an update in those first 24 hours since liftoff what have the astronauts been up to and how's [0:27] everything going so far the mission is going smoothly amna i don't want to hex it or anything [0:33] but things are going well it is a test flight and one of the things that was high on the list of [0:39] things they wanted to understand was how well does the orion capsule maneuver when it is manually [0:44] controlled in space so they separated from the second stage of the rocket which is no longer [0:52] needed for them pulled back and attempted to get close to it as if it was dead [0:58] so the orion capsule was not docking although they did not dock there was a docking target as [1:04] if there had been a docking mechanism on it and it gave the crew an opportunity to fly the orion [1:10] see what it's like as it got closer to that other object uh obviously to tell them a little bit about [1:15] how it handles for future docking i was watching as the navy test pilot and astronaut victor glover [1:23] handled this situation and why don't you listen in i think you will agree he's got the right stuff [1:30] see icps in the docking camera field of view okay waiting for 550. i'm on the thc there's 550. [1:38] got a little rumble like we're driving on a rocky road but much quieter than uh in the sim eight i [1:43] can see the side docking target that is a good looking american flag happy going off fox great [1:48] flying with you houston nice vehicle great job victor and to the entire crew and we enjoyed your [1:53] excitement at seeing icps out the window smooth flying by a steady hand and someone who knows a [2:02] lot about flying but the orion capsule is going to be one of the things that we're going to be [2:03] looking at this time in space on a brand new vehicle amna that is so very cool to hear so [2:08] miles not because i want specific details but because it got attention there was a report about [2:13] some issues with the onboard toilet after launch is everything okay now well i i guess you could [2:20] say it's a number one problem but yes the toilet did a fail initially uh this was a big deal [2:28] because you know the apollo capsules had no toilet they had to use bags and this was a big deal they [2:34] had to do a reboot on the system because a fan wasn't operating the urine collection capacity [2:39] was out of commission uh but they got it rebooted and everybody's fine and dandy on that priority [2:47] good to hear so walk us through what the next big hurdle is for these astronauts what are they [2:52] preparing for what comes next it's a historic moment amna and it's going to happen potentially [2:58] in about an hour or so uh it's called the trans lunar injection burn this is when they will fire [3:05] the rocket motors enough to increase the speed of the spacecraft by about 800 miles an hour and that [3:12] will be enough to pull the orion capsule away from the gravitational pull of earth and more toward the [3:20] moon once this burn is done they're pretty much on their way to the moon and they'll get their [3:26] honor about sunday for this ride around the moon so if they're expected to get their honor around [3:32] sunday tell us a little bit about how [3:35] much the rest of us down here on earth will be able to witness and able to see of this historic [3:40] journey well the new administrative nasa jared isaacman had made it possible for them to bring [3:48] their iphones they had been banned for astronauts by nasa because they were concerned about them [3:53] being flammable he said that's crazy bring your iphone so we're going to get some great selfies [3:58] for sure but i will tell you this if you go back to 1968 apollo 8 perhaps the most audacious apollo [4:04] mission of them all [4:05] the world was just completely gobsmacked by the image captured by bill anders one of the crew [4:11] members on that apollo mission as they orbited the moon they saw this blue orb arise and it was [4:20] earth it was an earthrise shot and it took everybody back uh it helped really in many [4:25] ways start the environmental movement here on earth you know and i've talked to several apollo [4:30] astronauts and and almost all of them to a person say they went to the moon to see if they could get [4:35] to the moon what they ended up being more fascinated about and more appreciative of [4:40] was earth itself it will be interesting to see if this crew has the same experience miles o'brien [4:47] always great to talk to you please come back soon update us on the mission thank you you're welcome [5:03] support journalism you trust support pbs news donate now or even better start a monthly [5:10] contribution today