NASA officials hold news conference after successful Artemis II splashdown

[0:00] Good evening. Yesterday when we were in this room we told you that the crew would put their lives [0:06] behind our confidence and they did. Yesterday in this room we told you that today belongs to [0:14] the engineers and technicians who touched this machine and it does and their work was good. [0:20] Welders at Michoud shaped the heat shield and joined the rocket. Technicians at Kennedy [0:25] parachutes stacked the vehicle, stacked Orion, stacked SLS. Engineers in Bremen, Torino and [0:30] across the alliance built the service module. Workers at Utah cast the boosters. Teams at Stennis [0:36] fired the engines. Flight controllers in this building in Houston sat console for 10 days straight [0:41] and sat silenced in the night for six minutes while plasma took the signal. Navy divers pulled the crew [0:46] out of the Pacific in an incredible way. The vehicle spoke for all of them and at 25,000 feet per second [0:53] it said the work was good. As we say in our business physics votes last. The families of the crew said [0:59] this week there had been happiness and joy but also anxiety wanting to get their crew their their loved [1:04] ones home safely. I was with them tonight four families sat through those six minutes and their [1:08] courage is the same as the crew that just came home. Yesterday flight director Jeff Radigan said we had [1:14] less than a degree of an angle to hit after a quarter of a million miles to the moon and their team hit it. [1:19] That is not luck that is 10 that is a thousand people doing their jobs. You all heard the crew's words [1:25] during the mission they were incredibly inspirational. They carried the torch from Apollo through station and around [1:30] the far side of the moon. Their words belong to them. We'll get to hear from them as soon as as soon [1:34] as as soon as they're back here but tonight belongs to the team that built the machine that they wrote. [1:40] We talked a lot about what what gets in our way. The impediment to action is where we find the way to [1:47] get to action. What stands in the way becomes the way. This program faced every obstacle an institution [1:52] can face. The team met each one with work and tonight is the proof but that work needs to continue. [1:59] The path to the lunar surface is open but the work ahead is greater than the work behind us. [2:04] It always will be. 53 years ago humanity left the moon. This time we return to stay. Let us finish [2:11] what they started. Let us focus on what was left undone. Let us not go to plant flags and leave but to [2:16] stay. With firmness in our purpose with gratitude for the hands who built the machines and with love for [2:21] the ones that we carry with us. Welcome home integrity. I'll hand it over to Dr. Glaze. [2:26] Thank you so thank you so much Amit. So y'all we did it. We sent four amazing people to the moon and [2:37] safely returned them to earth for the first time in more than 50 years. To the generation that now knows [2:44] what we're capable of welcome to our moonshot. I want to thank our entire team across this nation and [2:52] around the world who gave every ounce of ingenuity and effort to make him so proud of each and every [3:01] one of you what you have achieved over the last 10 days. NASA has shown that ambitious goals are worth [3:07] pursuing and can inspire the world. We are so thrilled to have Reed, Victor, Christina and Jeremy back here on [3:16] Earth and safely aboard the USS John P. Murtha. Our team is fired up and this mission as we've been talking about [3:26] is just the beginning. To all of our new followers out there please stay tuned this is the first mission. Our first [3:37] mission to the moon of many more to come and we can't wait. Our teams are so ready to get to work on the next missions and [3:45] explore the lunar surface and bring the world along with us. I'll pass it over to Rick. Thank you Lori. [3:52] Thank you all for your continued interest in this mission. What a truly spectacular day it was for [3:57] NASA and all of our international partners. This crew has said time and again that they were going for [4:02] all of humanity and today we've fulfilled that objective by completing their journey and returning [4:07] them safely to earth. I've got a few stats for those who are interested courtesy of the flight dynamics [4:12] officer and mission control. Integrity and her crew four astronauts flew 700,237 miles. We reached a peak [4:21] velocity of 24,664 miles per hour. We hit our flight path angle target within 0.4 percent. We flew an entry [4:32] range of 1,957 miles and we landed within less than a mile of our target. What a tremendous day. Over to Howard. [4:45] Thank you Rick and thank you to the flight control team. What an outstanding job. [4:50] Wow what a fantastic day. I mean we've dreamed as a team of reaching this day and appreciate Amit's [4:57] comments. I mean so many people have worked very hard tirelessly to get this day. I think this mission [5:04] has been historic and has demonstrated new capabilities for Orion spacecraft has taken our crew farther than any [5:12] crews that have ever gone to the moon and back safely. 252,756 miles and that is a fantastic feat. [5:21] We got a lot more to do and I'm so happy that we get to have this moment but we're going to have a lot of [5:28] these moments coming up and I want to thank the entire Orion team. They have worked tirelessly. They've [5:35] dedicated many hours. They've committed to excellence and innovated and attacked challenges that we've [5:41] come up with for both our NASA team, our industry partners and our European team as well. We did it [5:48] together. We brought the crew home safely. They did reserve a round of applause. It was a terrific day for [5:54] them as well and I want to thank the crew. They have been a fantastic inspiration to our teams as well. [6:00] You've heard their messages. We are so happy they're back on the ground. We can't wait to see them as [6:05] well and finally you know we've learned a lot from this mission. Number one was bringing the crews home [6:11] safely but it's also a test flight and like Amit said we have a work ahead of us to be done. We're going [6:19] to learn from this mission. We're going to look at the data and we'll move forward. This is the start [6:25] of a new era of human space exploration. Thank you. Well thank you Howard. What an incredible [6:35] end to an incredible mission. I got to tell you I think I'm trying to pick out the best [6:40] best thing that happened today and I'll just say that we were sitting in the back room getting ready [6:45] for this press conference and Howard gets a call from Reed Weissman the commander of integrity and it [6:51] was so great to hear his voice and tell us that all the crew is okay and we can say that we did our [6:57] our mission. We accomplished what we set out to do. I'm very proud of the efforts of the exploration [7:03] ground systems team that supported both the launch and recovery operations alongside our Navy partners. [7:11] All the hard work and dedication over the last couple years paid off today and the team did a great job. [7:19] Our recovery teams are currently in the process of bringing Orion back on the well deck of the ship [7:26] and hopefully within about four or five hours it'll be hard down in the back end of the USS Murtha. [7:32] It's good to be NASA. It's good to be an American today. Thank you. All right it's time now for [7:43] questions. We'll start here in the room and take several from the phone. For those on the phone you [7:48] can press star one to get into the question queue and please limit to one question if you can. We'll start [7:53] here with Joey. Thanks so much. Joey with Reuters and congrats on a really nice mission. Curious to hear more [8:02] about how the astronauts are doing. Where are they going to sleep tonight and then also when do you [8:06] guys expect to announce the crew for Artemis 3? Thanks. So the answer to your second question Joey is [8:13] soon. I will not put units on that on my value but soon. Rick you want to talk about the crew what [8:21] they're doing? Yeah we saw the we saw the crew a number of times after they got out of the spacecraft. [8:27] We saw them on the front porch. Everybody was happy and healthy. I saw Victor as he was sitting on the edge of the [8:32] helicopter on the on the flight deck of the ship and he was smiling and in good spirits and everything [8:39] we've been hearing from the surgeons is the flight crew is happy and healthy and ready to come home to [8:44] Houston. Hi Lauren Gresh with Bloomberg. Congratulations again. You know obviously it's been such a great [8:55] mission to watch from start to finish but I guess I'm wondering if you had to categorize you know this [9:00] was a test flight. What would you say is the issue that you feel maybe the most grateful arose during this [9:06] mission so that you could apply that lesson learned to the next? Maybe Howard why don't you take that [9:13] one? Yeah I think you know we're taking a lot of lessons learned certainly learning about how the crew [9:19] operates a spaceship has been a really great learning experience and flying and ability for them to test [9:25] drive the for our spacecraft has been good. I think as we mentioned previously our pressure control [9:31] assembly where we discovered a leakage through the system I think we learned a lot about that that is [9:38] a new finding certainly we're going to go investigate that we're going to look at that and move forward [9:43] to make sure that we make some changes if necessary but we'll get all the data and we'll go forward from [9:49] there. Marcia. Associated Press Marcia Dunn. The administrator described the crew as great communicators almost [10:01] poets. How is you know this is going to be a tough act to follow for the upcoming crews soon to be [10:09] soon to be picked. Talk about talk about this crew in particular and what they brought to this that went [10:18] beyond the scientific and the research and the engineering please. I'll just say that this particular [10:24] crew you know they've gotten to know each other so well so each of them individually are just absolutely [10:29] amazing individuals but they as a group you could watch them and what they brought as you watched [10:35] them in Orion over the last 10 days operating just seamlessly between the four of them just the [10:42] teamwork the camaraderie just I think they really brought an amazing sense of what we're trying to [10:48] achieve with this mission it's the mission for all humanity a mission for all and they really did [10:55] represent that and tried to communicate that I do know that our entire astronaut corps is spectacular [11:01] and so I have no doubt that the next teams will also rise to that level. Jackie. Hi all Jackie Waddle CNN [11:13] congratulations question for Rick I'm really anxious to hear what that blackout during re-entry was like [11:20] for you and also just wanted to ask you know that splashdown target being less than a mile off is [11:27] incredible can you walk us through if anything you know was outside of ordinary I know we heard on [11:33] comms there were some sensor issues just before entry interface just curious to hear more about that [11:37] thanks. Sure so you know blackout there's really no being around the bush with that you know it's [11:45] it's a it's a difficult time because the flight control team wants to see data we want to look at [11:49] the data we want to be able to provide input to the flight crew on how to fly their spaceship and when we [11:54] don't have data we're trying to figure out what to do with ourselves but we knew when blackout was going [11:59] to start it started when we expected we knew when it was going to end it ended when we expected and so [12:04] that give it that gave us the trust that the spaceship was flying itself correctly as far as some of the [12:09] the cautions and things that came up on the way down the the prop cautions they were we think that [12:15] again that was learning of the spacecraft some of the the limits are set a little bit tighter than [12:19] than we probably should have had them set and we disposition those and moved on as far as the comms [12:25] post-landing we don't quite know what was going on there but we worked around it we had comms with [12:29] the recovery team and we safely handed over the mission authority at the right time okay josh hi [12:39] josh dinnerspace.com really excited to hear that the crew is doing well i'm interested you know we saw [12:44] victor sitting on the edge of that helicopter once they landed on the ship and it was great to see them [12:48] all you know walk across the deck they were set to do an emergency egress test with a ladder a backpack [12:55] you know i'm wondering if they've performed that yet how soon they will be performing in it if they [13:00] have how it went i'm i'm not familiar with the an emergency egress test post-landing um given that [13:10] this was a test mission the number one goal was to get the flight crew out of the spaceship as fast as we [13:14] could uh and we weren't looking at any post-landing objectives yeah we did do i think in back when we [13:20] were back on the launch pad we did um during the cddt we did an emergency egress but yeah but that's [13:26] the only one i'm aware of yeah but we'll check on it for you eric eric berger ars technica congratulations [13:36] on making what i know is really hard look easy um it was a beautiful mission um you said the um the [13:43] work ahead is greater than the work behind us um can you talk about as sort of nasa rises to these [13:50] far greater challenges in artemis 3 artemis 4 and and and building the moon base how important it is [13:56] for for you and the agency to be flying humans in deep space again and sort of to be at an operational [14:02] cadence this has to be pretty uplifting to the workforce to to put the 50 years of not being [14:08] back to the moon behind us yeah it's huge i mean flight cadence and and iteration is the key to [14:16] reliability and safety you know we we were waiting to fly this mission for for several years a lot of [14:21] that was because of uh you know the issues we saw during artemis 1 and making sure we did that the [14:26] right way and we tried to make sure the machine was perfect before we flew it but the real way to do [14:30] that is to keep iterating to keep flying keep learning keep getting data in the in the flight environment so [14:36] that piece of how we've changed the architecture and then demanding that higher cadence is going to be [14:41] i would say mandatory for us to be successful we need that muscle memory to exist we need the the data to [14:46] keep coming in and we need to be able to quickly iterate and change the machine as we learn from [14:50] it everything we learned from artemis 2 we're going to get right after but i would say it's essential [14:56] okay irene irene klotz with aviation week in space technology for amit what do you think will be your [15:05] biggest challenge to ensure that this mantle and responsibility of inheriting what apollo did does not [15:15] end like apollo i think the the one of the we've talked about this a little bit before you know [15:22] what the the architects of apollo um they gilruth von braun siemens muller they what they really wanted [15:28] to do when they were given the challenge of expanding the range of action to the moon was [15:33] was to learn to live and work in space for a long time they wanted to do that first i talked a little [15:38] bit about this with rob earlier um i think you know and of course because of the the nature of the [15:44] environment they were in you know they were they were in a race they achieved their objectives [15:48] they're geopolitical as well as technological but once it was done it was done and i think [15:53] there was not there the foundation they wanted to build on is what we went to afterwards so we wanted [15:58] to you know investigate reusability with shuttle we did that we wanted to learn to live in space for a [16:02] long time with station we've got to that point now 25 years of occupation and i said now it's interesting [16:07] i think where we are with the with the program is kind of where they wanted us to be before they [16:12] decided to go do that to actually enable a sustainable presence to learn how to live and work there for [16:17] a long time so you know it's it's a weird irony of history that you know it took that long for us [16:22] to do that but we weren't sitting idle while that happened we developed the capability uh to to have [16:27] an enduring presence you know in space and now we're going to take advantage of that now that we've reached [16:31] back to the moon okay we'll take one more in the room from ken chang and then we'll go take several from [16:37] the phone all right ken chang from new york times i guess for rick and everybody else i was just can you talk [16:43] about what the last 13 minutes were like there had to been some anxiety and what was the moment where [16:49] you could finally relax and when did you start celebrating in mission control well certainly [16:55] there's anxiety uh if you didn't have anxiety bringing this spacecraft home you probably didn't [17:00] have a pulse um you know we were i have a lot of trust in my team we've got um we won't all flight [17:06] controllers in the room on entry day went through a rigorous training process and they are the system [17:11] experts on their respective uh part of the spacecraft and um so while there's anxiety there's a lot of [17:17] confidence because the team is there to do a job and we've trained well and and we executed well [17:22] um we all breathed a sigh of relief once the side hatch opened up um that's when we we brought the team [17:29] in we um said a few words to the flight controllers and then um we we turned around to the families and [17:35] waved to the families and gave them a thumbs up and um we all watched as a flight control team as as each of [17:40] the four astronauts got out of the spaceship and were hoisted up onto the helicopters um it was a it [17:46] was a great day okay we'll take several questions from the phone now the first one is from micah [17:54] maidenberg with the wall street journal good evening a question for lawyer or howard i know it's very very [18:04] early here but any initial thinking about the heat shield performance relative to artemis 1 [18:10] and could you walk through how the heat shield will be assessed in the coming uh weeks and months [18:15] thanks so much so i'll just start and then i'll hand it over to howard how's that um so you know [18:20] initially we gathered a lot of data already um certainly you saw there were aircraft that were [18:26] positioned in order to do some imagery and collect data so we've got some of those data that can be [18:31] analyzed in the coming days and weeks and we also had divers below the surface that took imaging of the [18:37] of the heat shield before it was brought onto the mirtha so that we could understand exactly what state [18:42] it's in um after it landed um and so we've already i think we've already begun the data uh the data [18:48] gathering piece of it i'm sure there'll be more assessments once we get on the ship and then howard [18:52] why don't you talk kind of what the next steps are yeah we already have two of our uh heat shield experts [18:58] on board uh the ship and so when we get uh the crew module into the well deck and uh we'll do some [19:05] inspections uh right off the bat like lori said we've got underwater divers that are taking pictures [19:10] and then after that once we've inspected that on the ship we'll transfer back to kidney space center [19:15] we'll have opportunity to look in detail and do scans of the heat shield and we have a lot of [19:21] good data from that we also captured a lot of great imagery obviously we haven't had time to [19:26] digest all that data but we will in the next several days and make sure we understand if there's [19:31] anything that happened that was anomalous but we're very excited the team is very excited to get that [19:38] data from both the imagery and seeing it live in person