Artemis II returns LIVE: Splashdown less than six hours away as crew prepares for fireball return

Ideal weather conditions

The weather forecast continues to look great for splashdown. Wind speeds are at about 10 knots, and waves are less than 1.2 meters (4 feet) high off the coast of San Diego.

The Artemis II crew should have a peaceful time bobbing in the ocean if all goes to plan. You know, after hurtling to Earth at 25,000 miles per hour (40,000 kilometers per hour).

Joke time

To lighten the mood after that intense burn conference, I think it’s time for a joke. This one comes from Funology.

Why did the cow go in the spaceship?

What technique is NASA using for a safe reentry?

Besides liftoff, Orion’s trip back to Earth will be the most dramatic aspect of Artemis II. After looping around the moon, the spacecraft will slam back into Earth’s atmosphere at 25,000 miles per hour (40,000 kilometers per hour).

This means the positioning of the craft needs to be ultra-precise — come in too steep and the vehicle faces punishing heat and pressure; but come in too shallow and it can skip away from the atmosphere.

The astronauts just got a little confused over Excel file names

Pilot Victor Glover has just been chatting burn numbers with Jacki Mahaffey.

There was some confusion about Excel file names, but it looks like they’re all set now.

Who will be picking up the astronauts?

Thanks to the close proximity of the Naval Base San Diego, members of the Navy, aboard the USS John Murtha, will be pulling the crew out of the capsule and aboard helicopters.

From there the astronauts will get transported to the Johnson Space Center.

A view of the crew

Here’s our first glimpse of the crew from inside Orion’s cockpit today, with commander Reid Wiseman and pilot Victor Glover reviewing timeline parameters and some of the systems status boards on the flight deck.

Ben Turner

Oops

When I said “Orion is about to make its third return trajectory correction burn,” what I meant to say was, “Orion is going to make its third return trajectory correction burn in an hour.”

The 8-second burn is scheduled for 2:53 p.m. Apologies. I’m just so excited for this burn.

Burn coming up

Orion is about to make its third return trajectory correction burn, scheduled for 2:53 p.m. ET.

This 8-second burn is to tweak Orion’s trajectory, ensuring the crew maintain a precise course for their reentry.

Patrick Pester

Did they really see green on the moon?

During a 7-hour lunar flyby earlier this week, Artemis II crewmembers called out their observations of the moon’s surface while simultaneously photographing it — giving members of the science team back on Earth a minute-by-minute account of the rare research expedition.

Several observations already stand out, according to Gordon Osinski, a crater specialist and lunar geologist who helped train the Artemis II astronauts on what to look for.

Here wee go

NASA’s Jacki Mahaffey, Artemis II chief training officer in charge of communications with the crew today, is running through some cabin configurations with the crew before reentry.

One of them involves the stowing of the collapsable contingency urinal (CCU) — a container used on Artemis II after the notorious malfunction of their space toilet.

Moonshots

As the astronauts wake up, we’ll expect to hear more chatter from them on the comms soon, Rob Navias tells us.

In the meantime, let’s take another admiring look at their astrophotography skill with some of the stunning snaps they took on their flyby of the moon.

Image 1 of 6

Artemis II’s trajectory was modeled off Apollo 13’s

There’s something delightfully poetic about how Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, is on a trajectory modeled after the Apollo 13 mission.

The path around the moon and back to Earth is a free-return path, meaning the Orion spacecraft uses both the moon’s and Earth’s natural orbits to maximize efficiency.

Where we’re at so far

Rob Navias back with another fetching telemetry visualization for the Orion capsule Integrity.

From launch to splashdown, the mission will have logged a total distance of 694,481 miles (1,117,659 kilometers), Navias noted.

Ben Turner

‘Reasons to be confident’ about heat shield

Yesterday, I reported on the issue with Orion’s heat shield. The heat shield will be essential for bringing the astronauts home safely today, but some experts are concerned about how it will perform.

NASA used essentially the same heat shield for the uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022, and that one suffered much more than expected. As a result, the space agency has opted to adjust the reentry path for Artemis II to mitigate risks to the heat shield.

How can the crew steer to the landing site?

As Orion falls back to Earth, the crew is not flying the capsule the same way a pilot would fly an airplane.

Instead, the spacecraft uses a combination of onboard guidance and thrusters to control where it lands. The crew can monitor the process and step in if needed, but most of the work for landing is done by the spacecraft’s guidance and control system. Small thrusters can help orient Orion during re-entry, making sure the heat shield stays properly positioned and the capsule follows the right path down to Earth.

“The stage is set”

Rob Navias back with an update from mission control.

The crew is “getting a bite to eat, completing the stowage of items in their crew cabin and everything is all set,” he said. “The stage is set for their return to Earth this evening with a splashdown to the Pacific off the coast of San Diego, seven hours and 40 minutes from now.”

Where are the Artemis II crew landing?

If you live near San Diego, California, you could consider waving at Orion as it hurtles toward the Pacific Ocean at the crazy fast speed of 11 km/s (40,000 km/h) or 24,606 mph.

According to NASA, the splashdown is scheduled for 8:07 p.m. EDT (0007 GMT on April 11), with the capsule landing around 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) southwest of San Diego.

Rise and shine, Integrity

And there was the wake-up call, this time with a double bill of songs. First, the actual wake-up song from Live:

Live – Run To The Water – YouTube

Watch On

And then the Zac Brown Band:

What’s next on the Artemis playlist?

Artemis II has been famous for it’s iconic wake-up songs each morning. With the astronauts selecting each song. Eager listeners can also find the 10 songs on NASA Spotify playlist. But what will be the last? Well, we have only 15 minutes or so before we find out.

Kenna Hughes-Castleberry

It’s nearly wake-up time

Rob Navias is back on the NASA broadcast, this time to tell us that there are about 22 minutes left until the crew will get their wake-up call “and will begin at that point to review their morning messages and complete the configuration of the crew cabin for their high-speed entry back to Earth’s atmosphere this evening.”

The view from Integrity

And here’s the view from Integrity’s solar array wing camera.

“The Earth will grow larger and larger in the field of view as we continue to move throughout the day,” Navias said.

NASA coverage begins

Rob Navias has appeared on NASA’s livestream to kick off the agency’s live coverage of the landing, and has also shared a handy visualization of where Orion is currently at.

“As you can see from this computer generated graphic based on real time telemetry, we are currently just 67,000 miles from the Earth,” Navias said. “We passed the halfway mark last night between the Earth and the Moon, and are 186,000 miles from the moon as we close in on the planet Earth.”

What does it feel like to disappear behind the moon?

The “overview effect,” is a term invented by the science philosopher Frank White to describe the shift in perspective humans feel when they see Earth from space — especially how small and vulnerable our patch of cosmic oasis appears against the uninhabitable and vast backdrop that surrounds it.

When asked what it felt like to disappear behind the moon and lose radio contact with Earth, Artemis II pilot Victor Glover expressed a similar sentiment.

Artemis II — The Movie?

During the same in-flight news conference, the astronauts were also asked who they would want to play them in a movie.

“We’ve thought a little about the movie, and I think that’s way out of our pay grade,” Reid Wiseman said. “But one thing we do know for sure is that this guy [pointing at Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen] is gonna be played by Buzz Lightyear. 100%. No doubt.”

The crew’s final reflections on their mission

While we can’t exactly give you the inside story on the contents of the crews’ dreams right now, we can at least tell you some of their reflections upon their historic journey before they went to bed.

When asked what they would tell their younger selves about what they’re doing right now, Christina Koch recalled a family vacation she took to Kennedy Space Centre at age 10.

What are the Artemis II astronauts doing right now?

The Artemis II crew are currently taking some much needed sleep before a very busy day returning to Earth, and will be set to wake up in a couple of hours time.

Here’s today’s full schedule (in EDT) taken from NASA’s website:

What time is splashdown?

NASA is expecting the Artemis II crew to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean just off San Diego at 8:07 p.m. EDT. The space agency and the U.S. Navy will be waiting for them with a recovery ship.

NASA’s live coverage of the crew’s return to Earth will begin at 6:30 p.m. EDT.

Patrick Pester