Artemis II: retired astronauts break down what's next

[0:00] The astronauts of the Artemis 2 mission are now 20 hours into their mission to the moon and they're [0:05] getting ready to start the next phase of their historic journey. Here's a live look from NASA [0:10] and after some much deserved rest the crew will make system checks while preparing for a pivotal [0:17] maneuver that will set the course for their lunar flyby. It will be the closest that anyone has [0:23] gotten to the moon in half a century. With us now former NASA chief astronaut Chris Cassidy. [0:29] All right Chris so much focus on the launch yesterday but there's a whole mission ahead of [0:35] this crew. How do you think it's going so far? Oh Brianna great to be with you and it's so exciting [0:42] to feel this enthusiasm and support coming from the nation and the world about this mission. So [0:48] proud of my four colleagues and friends. Of course the launch as you indicated the launch is a [0:53] critical part a huge chunk of risk that has passed them but so much of the mission ahead and the [1:00] nature of a test flight is so important. So I'm so excited to be here with you. [1:01] The mission is so important to be here with you. The first thing that you have to do when you're [1:03] on a mission is to shake out all the systems that haven't been run through the paces before and put [1:09] in an integrated fashion to the mission. So everything seems to be going great. You know [1:12] little things along the way. I'm sure I'm not in mission control but those guys and gals are pros [1:17] at work and problems in real time and it's exciting to see that as they're about five and a half [1:22] hours away from that translunar injection burn that you just kind of alluded to. That's a big [1:26] deal. That sets them on the trajectory. So I know they're hustling and bustling inside there where the [1:31] going and ready for that. [1:33] So we're looking for that at 8 PM tonight Eastern. [1:37] Can you talk a little bit more about this process, what [1:40] we should expect, what you're watching for, [1:43] and how this sets them on that trajectory? [1:48] Right, so Mission Control is certainly [1:51] monitoring and updating the state vector of the vehicle, [1:54] where it is precisely, and fine tuning the orbital burn [1:59] targets. [2:00] Those are technical words, but updating information [2:02] to the computer so it has the most precise information [2:06] for the burn, the duration of the ignition, for example, [2:10] and orientation. [2:12] And that kind of sets them up for that free return trajectory [2:16] that will slingshot them around the moon. [2:18] So in my mind, it's hard to wrap my brain around the fact [2:22] that a small firing of an engine nine days before [2:26] is what's going to allow them to land safely on Earth, [2:29] with some tweaking along the way. [2:32] But just amazing. [2:32] Amazing calculations, amazing human ingenuity, [2:36] and what we can accomplish when smart people, that we have lots [2:40] of them in our nation's space force, space community, [2:44] can accomplish. [2:45] And that's what's going on right now. [2:47] Yeah, it's a bit of a butterfly effect indeed with that. [2:50] I wonder what you're most looking forward [2:51] to seeing as the crew is getting closer and closer to the moon. [2:58] You know, having close personal friends and connections, [3:04] both on the ground teams and the crew, [3:05] I'm most looking forward to seeing and feeling their emotions [3:10] and kind of riding that human side of the journey with them. [3:13] For example, last night when the polling for Go No Go [3:19] was happening at that 10-minute hold, [3:21] that's when I was most excited and fired up and just really, [3:24] really pumped. [3:25] And for me, watching them kind of go around that back side [3:30] of the moon and seeing with their eyeballs the two celestial bodies out one window, [3:35] at the same time, closer to the moon than Earth. [3:38] And imagine going to the Grand Canyon, your pictures, [3:43] nobody wants to see your pictures, [3:44] but for you it's an incredible view. [3:46] It's hard to describe that view. [3:48] So their eyes are going to have to, [3:51] and their words are going to have to convey the emotions to all of us [3:54] on Earth, what it's like to see our planet in such a small aspect out the window. [3:59] I'm so excited for the four of them. [4:01] Last hour they received their official wake-up call from NASA. [4:05] The Artemis 2 crew. [4:23] A little John Legend and Andre 3000 for the wake-up call there. [4:27] Right now the crew is still orbiting the Earth at over 5,000 miles an hour [4:31] as they prepare for a complex maneuver that will send them [4:33] hurtling around the lunar surface. [4:35] Until then, they're taking in what they describe as phenomenal views of our planet [4:40] while gearing up to go farther into space than humans have ever traveled. [4:45] Here with us, retired NASA astronaut Colonel Terry Virts. [4:48] All right, Colonel. [4:49] So this is a testament. [4:50] This mission, hoping to bring NASA closer to landing humans back on the moon. [4:55] What's been happening so far as we're looking towards this very important moment this evening? [5:02] Yeah, this first day, we call it flight day one, has been really busy. [5:06] Of course, launch was the big thing. [5:08] And then getting the spaceship converted from a rocket-borne capsule [5:13] into an actual spaceship was another task. [5:16] They did some manual flying where they kind of spun around and rejoined on their booster rocket just [5:22] so the pilots could practice flying the capsule. [5:26] They reboosted themselves into a very, we call it, highly elliptical orbit where at the top part, [5:31] they're 45,000 miles away from Earth, and at the bottom part, they're 1,500 miles. [5:35] So that's very high. [5:37] That's higher than I was on the space station, so that was pretty cool. [5:40] And then the big thing tonight, in a couple of hours, they're going to do what's called a TLI burn, [5:45] the Translunar Injection Burn, using just their own service module, so that small, European-built, [5:52] rocket on the back of the capsule is going to boost them from 17,000 miles an hour to 25,000 miles an hour [5:59] and put them on escape velocity on a trajectory to the moon. [6:03] So this first flight, day one, in addition to the wake-up music by John Legend, has been a really busy day. [6:09] There are a number of key moments during this 10-day mission. [6:14] So what are you going to be looking for as we get closer to their actual arrival near the lunar orbit? [6:22] Well, the big thing, this TLI burn is really critical. [6:25] So it has to happen right to be put on the precise trajectory to the moon. [6:30] And you don't just fly a straight line to the moon. [6:32] You have Earth's gravity the whole time bending your course. [6:35] And then as you get closer to the moon, the moon's gravity becomes really important. [6:39] So it's the big, arcing, parabolic trajectory. [6:42] So the burn tonight, the rocket engine has to fire for the precise amount of time. [6:47] It's a few minutes. [6:48] So that's a really important thing. [6:50] Plus, once that's done, they can't come back to Earth. [6:53] They can't abort. [6:54] You know? [6:55] So now if there was a medical emergency or whatever, they could turn around backwards, fire the engine, and splash down. [7:02] They can't do that after the TLI burn. [7:04] So that's a big deal. [7:05] And then, of course, for the whole mission, they have to make sure the life support systems work. [7:09] So the atmosphere and the cooling and the water and the bathroom and the food and everything that humans need, that needs to work. [7:16] The navigation needs to work. [7:17] So they're going to be doing some testing and experiments on that to make sure that the capsule can see stars and can see the moon and navigate itself. [7:24] And the coolest part is going to be flying around the moon. [7:27] I mean, these guys are going to be glued to the window, taking pictures. [7:30] They have a lot of experiments to do during those few hours when they're close to the moon. [7:34] And then the big thing that happens, you know, a week and a half from now, when they finally come back to Earth, the heat shield is a big part of the test and also the parachutes and all that to make sure they splash down in the right part of the Pacific. [7:49] So as a test pilot, I'm excited because there's a lot of test data points that have to be checked. [7:53] All right. [7:54] Talk to us about the food, which you mentioned, because NASA posted the menu and it has 189 unique menu items, 10 kinds of drinks, five different hot sauces. [8:07] Pretty cool. [8:08] What was your favorite thing to eat in space and what would you recommend staying away from? [8:12] Hot sauces are a big deal. [8:13] Your taste buds change in space. [8:15] And so you need more spice. [8:18] Everybody loves shrimp cocktail because it's spicy. [8:21] We had this German Zempf, which is the German word for shrimp. [8:24] The German word for mustard that was super popular. [8:26] The standard hot sauces. [8:28] Anything that's spicy, the astronauts will love. [8:30] And since this is a short mission in a capsule, they got to pick their food so you don't have to eat from the community pantry. [8:36] They got to pick what they wanted. [8:38] All eyes are going to be on this, the interim cryogenic propulsion system. [8:42] This is yet another booster. [8:45] And its main job is to push the Orion stack up here into a huge elliptical orbit around the Earth. [8:53] The farthest point of which will be some 40,000 miles away plus. [8:59] Once that is done, the ICPS will also be done. [9:02] And it will break away from the Orion stack. [9:05] Now, Orion is going to use it as sort of a space target to practice some maneuvers. [9:09] But basically, it's just going to start drifting back toward Earth where it's expected to burn up upon reentry. [9:16] Then we will focus on Orion up here. [9:19] The crew capsule up top and the service module down below. [9:22] The service module is an absolute workhorse in all of this, supplying water and oxygen and nitrogen and electricity to the crew capsule. [9:31] The electricity coming from these huge solar arrays, which are about 23 feet long and can be adjusted so they always face the sun in the optimal manner. [9:40] One of the maneuvers you may see this whole stack do is this slow rotation, which you've probably seen in other spacecraft. [9:47] Why do they do that? [9:48] Well, in part, to balance out the extreme temperatures. [9:52] So, the crew capsule is going to be a little bit more of a workhorse in terms of space where it can be, oh, so hot on the sunny side and absolutely frigid on the shady side. [9:59] The service module is going to stick with the crew capsule for the entire mission up until reentry. [10:05] But I'm going to break it away right now so we can talk just a little bit about the crew capsule because it is a wonder. [10:11] 23,000 pounds at liftoff, shielded against space radiation and micrometeoroids. [10:18] Let me blow it up to full size so you can see how big this thing is. [10:22] This is 11 feet tall. [10:23] This is 11 feet tall, more than 16 feet wide, making it the roomiest spacecraft that NASA has put out since the space shuttle. [10:32] With more than enough for this four-person crew to live there for 21 days if they had to with their space suits and food and water and waste facilities and communications equipment, everything they need, even some exercise gear. [10:46] And they'll appreciate that space because it's a very long journey from the Earth to the moon and back. [10:52] 685,000 miles as Orion is expected to fly.