NASA Artemis Mission Overview News Conference

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(01:02):
Good morning and welcome to our briefing today about NASA's
Artemis 2 test flight set to send 4 astronauts around the
moon next year as the first mission under the Artemis
program. I'm Rachel Craft with NASA
Communications. We have several key people here
today at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to share more
details about the mission. They are Lakeisha Hawkins,

(01:26):
acting deputy associate administrator for NASA's
Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, Charlie
Blackwell Thompson, Artemis Launch director, Judd Freeling,
Artemis 2 Ascent flight director, Jeff Ratigan, lead
flight director for the mission,Rick Henfling, Artemis 2 entry

(01:51):
flight director, and Dan Flores,NASA test director.
We'll have some remarks this morning from each of our
participants here, and then we'll take questions from
reporters both here in the room and on the phone.
And reporters who are on the phone, you can get into the
question queue by pressing *1. And with that, we'll start with

(02:12):
Lakisha. Good morning and thank you for
joining us. I'm glad we opened with that
video. It gets your heart pumping and
it reminds US of the historic nature of the mission that we
are about to embark upon. We're here today to talk about
Artemis 2 and we together have afront row seat to history.

(02:36):
We're returning to the Moon after over 50 years during the
Apollo program, the Apollo era, and we are going back to the
moon now. This is a series of tests.
Artemis is Artemis 1 was a 25 day mission.
It was a great success. What we demonstrated the

(02:58):
capabilities of the SLS rocket, the Orion spacecraft and all of
the supporting operational and ground systems.
We were able to test out those capabilities in a real deep
space environment. And so now here we are moving on
to Artemis 2, Artemis Tools, a 10 day test flight we will be

(03:20):
launching for crew, our friends Commander Reed Wiseman and
Pyler, Victoria pilot Victor Glover and Mission Specialist
Christina, coach and Canadian Space Agency and Mission
Specialist Jeremy Hansen. And that got them along with our
ground teams. We are going to be working

(03:41):
together to execute this mission, but let me emphasize
that this is a test flight. And so the activities that we do
together, we are going to learn from them.
And so while Artemis 1 was a great success, there are new
systems and new capabilities that we will be demonstrating on

(04:01):
Artemis 2, including the life support systems, the display
capabilities, software, and etcetera.
We'll be taking lessons learned that we learned from Artemis 1
and incorporating that into Artemis 2, and then building
upon what we learned from the last mission.
This is a stepped approach and all that we learned from Artemis

(04:25):
2. We will build upon that to
prepare us for our first crude landing on the surface of the
moon for Artemis 3. Now there's some things that
we're doing for Artemis 2. We can talk a little bit about
what that mission will look like.
This is going to be a free return trajectory.

(04:47):
And what that means is, is a mitigation.
We are going to essentially set the course when we do the
translunar injection burn on day2 to use physics, the Earth and,
and moon gravity to make sure that we can return the crew and
without having to make major course corrections.

(05:08):
Propulsion burns. This is something that we've
experienced before. If you recall in your history,
we did that on Apollo 8 and Apollo 13.
And so when you look at this map, we go from launch and then
the boosters, of course, which provide about 75% of the thrust
that we need in order to be ableto get the spacecraft aloft.

(05:32):
Once we do that and of course the R25 engines burn, then we're
going to jettison the boosters as well as the launch board
systems. Once we get through main engine
cut off, then we're going to do an apogee raise burn and a pair
G raise, the apogee raise, renewfor a pair G raise burn, and

(05:54):
then we're going to demonstrate a Rendezvous proximity
operations demonstration. And I think my colleagues are
going to talk a little bit aboutthat.
That's going to be critical to ensure that we can control 2
bodies in close proximity to oneanother as we prepare to do
something similar on Artemis 3, when we get ready to move the

(06:17):
crew from the SLS Orion into ourlanding system in preparation
for landing. And then after we dispose of the
upper stage, the ICPS, we're going to do some checkouts of
some of our life support systemsin HEO or high or thoroughbred,
and then we commit to translunarinjection.

(06:40):
We then make our path out to themoon, around the moon, and then
return back home. Once we get to the entry
interface, once we hit the atmosphere, then all that's left
to do is splash down and to safely recover our crew.
Our job is not only to launch this crew, but to make sure that

(07:03):
we return our friends home safely.
So there's a couple other thingsI want to talk about.
I'd like to talk about the mission management team.
The mission management team willbe activated about two days
before the launch. Then the mission management team
is responsible for the overall risk management and critical

(07:24):
decisions at key points during the mission.
And that team is going to be made-up of senior leaders and
technical experts who understandthe risk that we have been
mitigating and thinking through and some accepting as we lead up
to the mission and then be able to support that and lead that

(07:46):
during the mission. But the real time decision
making, a lot of that will be handled by my launch in flight
and return recovery colleagues sitting next to me and they'll
be talking a little bit more about their jobs during this
mission. We'll start at Kennedy Space

(08:07):
Center and then we will transition here to Johnson Space
Center Acts after the proximity operations demonstration on
lunch day one. And then from then on, we'll
meet daily or they'll meet dailyuntil the crew is safely
returned. And so one more question that I
often get asked is when will we actually launch?

(08:30):
The agency has made a commitmentto launch no later than April of
26th and we intend to keep that commitment.
We're also though working to accelerate as much as we can in
terms of the preparations and the operations preparation to
potentially as early as February.

(08:51):
But we want to emphasize that safety is our high priority.
And so as we work through these operational preparations, as we
finish stacking the rocket, we're continuing to assess to
make sure that we do things in aSafeway.
And once we get through some of those key integration points,

(09:12):
once we get ready through some of those test prep activities, I
will be able to fully assess where we are now.
The process that we go through and in order to be able to set
that is we understand where our progress is in terms of stacking
of the rocket and our OPS planning and preparation, our

(09:33):
training planning and preparation.
And then we take a look at the potential launch periods that
are available to us, the launch periods, which is the days and
essentially that falls about monthly days available to us as
well as the windows within thosedays that are available that are
suitable for us to be able to launch.

(09:53):
And we take a look at our technical readiness.
We take a look at potential constraints, technical
constraints. And we also of course take into
consideration or the mechanics, the physics of the Earth
relative to the moon, the trajectory that we have prepared
and set out for ourselves and any range constraints in the

(10:15):
Earth and space weather. All of these we put together to
make an assessment of what is available to us to be able to
execute on this mission. And as we get closer, we're
narrowing that down and we'll beready to talk about that very
soon. And so I'll just conclude by
saying that we're making preparations and when we are
ready to safely launch, we are going to accelerate as much as

(10:38):
we can to do so. We'll be able to execute this
mission and it is our plan and our desire to be able to bring
our crew safely home. With that, I'll turn it over.
Oh, I think I lost the mic. With that, I'll turn it over to
Charlie Blackwell Thompson. Thank you, Lakeisha, and thanks

(10:58):
for everyone who's joining us today, either here in the room
or online. I'm going to talk about our
preparations at the Kennedy Space Center for this SLS rocket
in the Orion spacecraft as we prepare for Artemis 2.
And as Lakeisha said, this is a very exciting time for us.
Orion is in its final preparations in what we call our

(11:20):
offline processing. It is currently in the launch of
the launch Abort facility. Launch Abort System facility are
the last of as we call it back at Kennedy and it is finishing
up it's processing there. We expect that to complete in
about a week or so and then it'll be headed over to the
Vehicle Assembly Building or theVAB.

(11:41):
The SLS rocket is pretty much stacked and ready to go.
It's test campaign is behind it.We are finishing up some of our
close outs and some of our otherwork, but most of our work there
on SLS is is behind us, which iswhich is a wonderful milestone.
Later this week we plan to stackthe Orion stage adapter.

(12:03):
It does have some some payloads on board it that'll be going
along for the ride with us, somecube sats.
So we're looking forward to thatas well.
Once Orion is complete over in the LASSOP, we'll bring it over
to the VAB. It will get mated to the SLS
rocket and we'll begin our test campaign.

(12:24):
And as part of that, some of thetests are the same that we did
during the Artemis One time frame.
There's an end to end contest. There's an interface
verification test, but we also have some new ones.
And those new tests consist of the countdown demonstration
test, which is about our crewed flight.
If any of you remember or were following back in the shuttle

(12:46):
days, we had a similar test thatwas called TCDT Terminal
Countdown Demonstration Test. That's where we suit up the
crew. They come out, we go through our
checklist and our countdown. They'll enter the ship, we'll do
COM checks, we'll we'll get themstrapped in, we'll do COM
checks, we'll do the configuration of the crew

(13:08):
module, and we'll countdown to inside of terminal count before
we have a plan stop. As part of that, we'll also do
an egress demonstration and thatwill be what we call a CDDT Part
1. Once that testing is complete,
we have some other servicing OPSthat we'll take care of in the

(13:30):
vehicle Assembly building. We will go ahead and do our
flight termination system test and we'll start closing out the
vehicle compartments as as part of our final close outs of SLS.
And when all of that is done, we'll get ready to roll out from

(13:51):
the VAB to the pad. And you can see some imagery
here from roll out from Artemis One.
It is truly a beautiful sight when that vehicle begins to make
its way across the threshold of the VAB and along that four mile
journey to the pad. Once we get to the launchpad, we

(14:14):
will make the connections between the mobile launcher and
the pad. We have a little bit of testing
that we will do out there as well.
We have some COM testing that we'll do in the in the RF
environment. We have booster servicing to
take care of. We have emergency egress system
to do the final configuration of.
We'll take care of that right after getting to the pad.

(14:37):
We'll have the crew come out forwhat we call Part 2 of CDDT and
that is where we'll walk down that emergency egress system and
go over the the events of egressin the in the event that we have
to perform one of those on launch day.
After that we're off to wet dress, wet dress rehearsal be a

(14:59):
full tanking of the vehicle course stage and upper stage.
We will get into a terminal count and again we will count
down inside a terminal count to about the 29 second point and
then we will terminate that test.
We'll go review the data and a few days later we'll get into
launch countdown. Our countdown is 2 days long,

(15:21):
very similar to what we had for Artemis One.
We do have a couple of changes though because we have a crew
this time around. So after tanking, we we have a
new built in hold that we will use just prior to sending the
the crew to the pad. We will send them out, get them
strapped in again, COM checks and get the crew module

(15:44):
configured and we'll countdown to our final planned whole
point, which is AT -10 minutes, very similar to what we did
during Artemis One. We'll do our final readiness
checks, make sure all of the work is complete, that we are
tracking no constraints. And at that time, we will give
the go to pick up the count at t-, 10 minutes, which again is

(16:05):
our last planned whole point. And we'll countdown through
terminal count. The launch abort system or the
last will become available to usat 5 minutes, 25 seconds and
then we'll countdown through ourterminal count.
Again, we'll be terminating the propellant to the vehicle,
pressurizing flight tanks, transitioning from ground power

(16:28):
over to onboard power and then transitioning the software from
the ground over to the flight. And we'll get down into that
inside of 31 seconds and we'll countdown, we'll get, we'll get
the GLSS go for course age engines start right around 10
seconds, just like Artemis One. We'll begin that stagger start

(16:49):
of the engines and then we'll have booster ignition and lift
off. And at that point in time, our
launch control team will hand over control of the vehicle to
the flight control team. And just like that, I'm going to
do it here today as I hand off to Judd Freeling, our Ascent
Flight Director. Thanks Charlie.

(17:10):
So of course we at the Mission Control Center will be following
along with a pre launch with Charlie through the RF link of
the Kennedy Uplink ground station and we can probably
still start the video. I got an animation to show you
what it's going to look like when we lift off.
So that £8.8 million of thrust is going to start to propel the

(17:31):
crew upwards towards towards ourmission objective.
There you can see we'll clear the tower probably about 10
seconds after liftoff and then we'll start a roll maneuver that
will get the crews ahead a headsdown position and then pitch
down so that we can start developing some horizontal
velocity. And you can see from this, this

(17:53):
shot gives you a good wide anglefrom what that that trajectory
is going to look like. So about a minute in or we get
to our SuperSonics or Mach 1A little little shortly after we
get to our Max cube, they're at about 200 and or 150,000 feet.
The solid rocket boosters separate from the stack.

(18:14):
We continue on upwards then about a little over 3 minutes,
the SM panels jettison revealingthe solar rays and then about 6
seconds later the last jettisons.
That's the the last the launch of port system.
So we continue on past get to a Miko.

(18:39):
So main engine cut off and the core stage separates from the
upper stage and the the Orion space gal there you see a good
shot from inside the core stage.By that time at Mikko we're at a
15 by 1200 nautical mile orbit with just the upper stage and
Orion. We will do a few maneuvers

(19:02):
including extending the the nozzle and RL 10 engine as well
as you can see the the solar rays deploying at that point.
That's about 20 minutes into themission.
We'll continue on past that. And as that we're doing those
activities, Christine and Jeremywill be getting out of there.
They're setting up the toilet and the the water dispenser as

(19:25):
well as the last shot you saw there was doing the upper stage
perigee rays maneuver. That'll get us to 100 by 1200
nautical mile orbit, after whichwe'll be in a safe orbit.
This, this chart shows you. We're now on the right side of
that chart. A little bit after that perigee
rays maneuver, Christine and Jeremy will be getting out of

(19:47):
their orange survival suits, andthen we'll be doing several
activities up until the apogee rays maneuver.
And so the apogee rays maneuver is also performed by the upper
stage. That'll get us to a 0 by 38,000
nautical mile orbit. That'll set us up.
For our prox OPS demonstration at that time after ARB, Victor

(20:15):
and and Reed will be getting outof their orange survival suits
and Christina and Jeremy was setting up the camera for the
proximity prox OPS demonstrationso they have a good view out the
docking hatch at that time. We will then separate the ICPS
from the Orion spacecraft and that's when I hand over to our

(20:37):
lead flight director, Jeff Radigan for him to do the
proximity demonstration. So, Jeff?
All right. Thanks, Judd.
So let's see. At this point in the mission,
the crew and the Orion spacecraft are in a high Earth
orbit. They're in a 24 hour orbit.
It'll take them again 24 hours to come back around and get
ready for TLI. And so we're going to spend that
24 hours checking out the Orion spacecraft, ensuring that

(20:58):
everything is ready to go beforewe actually take the crew to the
moon. And the, the first thing we're
going to do there is, as was mentioned, is this procs OPS
demo where we're going to take Orion and we're going to have
Reed and Victor fly it and approach the ICPS.
We're going to do that in a way that checks out the handling
qualities of the Orion spacecraft.
Let's see if we could cue the video, please.

(21:19):
We've got a, a nice animation that'll show you exactly what
what we're going to do there. So we'll separate from the the
ICPS and the Orion spacecraft will then flip around and go
nose on to ICPS, which is where our camera is for docking.
And the crew will use that camera to then do a series of

(21:40):
maneuvers to ensure that all of our ground models, all of the
preparations that we've done prior to flight actually match
what is going on with the spacecraft.
And so they'll do a series of turns, series of approaches and
departures in order to ensure that the the manual control of
the vehicle is what we were expecting it to be.
Of course, on Artemis One, we did test the automated control

(22:01):
of the vehicle and that was verysuccessful.
This is an opportunity to for usto test the crude control and a
way for us to check that out in preparation for future Artemis
missions. After the crew does their their
checkouts there, then they'll set for the departure burn, our
USS Two, our separation burn from ICPS.
And of course, we'll send it on its way having done its job.

(22:24):
And then the, the Orion will continue on to do a perigee
raise burn that will allow us toraise our perigee off the Earth
and to set up for TLI as we check out our ecosystems and
ensure that everything is working there.
As we, the crew then has a good night's sleep that is
interrupted by that perigee raised burn.

(22:45):
It's actually right in the middle of the night.
Unfortunately, physics cannot bedefied.
We have to put the burns where they are necessary for the
trajectory. So the crew will get a short
nap, they'll get up, they'll do the burn, and then they'll go
back to sleep again in preparation for TLI.
On the next day, Orion will comeback down from the high Earth
orbit to approximately 100 nautical miles off the surface

(23:05):
of the Earth and perform TLI sending the crew on the way to
the moon. That's going to be a very
exciting day. I have to admit, I'm, I'm very
much looking forward to the day where we send, you know, a crew
back to the moon for the first time in a long time.
On the way to the moon, the crewwill complete a series of
checkouts of the Orion spacecraft.
We again want to ensure that allof our systems are, are working

(23:27):
successfully and then we have a number of test objectives.
As was mentioned, it's a test flight.
So we're going to we're going toput the vehicle through its
paces and check all the systems,ensuring that everything is
ready to go. And then all of those checkouts
will be interrupted by a lunar flyby.
And it'll be very enjoyable for us to watch the crew and
enjoyable for them to watch as they fly past the moon.

(23:48):
It's going to look a little different than previous flybys.
And here we've got the video going of what it's going to look
like to the crew. They're going at least 5000
nautical miles past the moon, which is much higher than
previous missions have gone. And so the moon's going to look
a little bit smaller in comparison.
I can give you is if you held a basketball out from your hand,
that's about the distance, the sight distance that the moon

(24:13):
will appear to the crew in the window.
So it's going to look a little bit smaller as since they're not
going as low, but they are going, you know, further past
the moon than anyone's gone before.
And so I'm sure they'll be pretty excited about that.
They'll complete their observations.
And as you saw in the video, half the moon is lit, half of it
is in darkness. And so the crew as they go,

(24:33):
they'll have, they'll see that transition.
And I think the video we have isrepresentative of early in, in
the year. And so they'll complete their
observations and then become on their way back home.
We do have a series of correction burns.
Lakisha mentioned we're on a free return trajectory, but we
will be slightly correcting thatas as our NAV dispersions cause

(24:53):
us to do those correction burns on the way home.
So we'll have a few of those. And as we approach the Earth,
then I'll hand it over to Rick, who's our entry flight director.
Thanks, Jeff, and thanks to all who were able to join us this
morning in person and online. So I am in charge of the entry
team. So we will come on console about
the time that the flight crew wakes up on landing day.

(25:14):
We will have a short conference with Reed and Victor and
Christina and Jeremy. We'll provide them updates on
the weather at the landing site and any other updates on
spacecraft performance from the overnight period.
The crew's going to spend their morning tearing down the toilet.
They're going to deconfigure thewater dispenser.
They're going to put away the food warmer.
Basically all the things that they set up on flight day one,

(25:36):
they're going to put away and Stow for entry.
Once the crew gets the the cabinconfigured, we're going to
perform that last final trajectory correction maneuver
that Jeff talked about. This is going to put us on track
for a bullseye landing in the eastern Pacific off the coast of
San Diego. Once that trajectory correction
maneuver is complete, the flightcrew are going to put their

(25:58):
orange survival suits back on. They're going to do a leak check
to ensure that they're leak tight for entry, and that
process is going to take about two hours to do for all all four
crew to get suited. In the meantime, while the
flight crews are donning their suits, the ground team is going
to be doing some final spacecraft configurations like
configuring the backup flight software to perform an entry in

(26:21):
the event of a failure of the primary flight computers.
Once we get to about an hour from entry interface, that's
when the the pace of activity isreally going to pick up.
The the first major activity is we're going to hand down from
the deep space communications network to the tracking and data
relay satellite system network. This is the first time we'll be
back on Tedris since just beforethe Translunar injection burn.

(26:46):
So the the comp system will get reconfigged about 38 minutes
prior to entry interface, at which point we'll perform a comp
check and then we will start configuring the service module
for disposal. We're going to position the
solar arrays in a position that's favorable for separation.
We're going to perform a a test firing of the crew module
thrusters to ensure they're warmed up for entry.

(27:07):
And then we're going to get intothe proper attitude for service
module separation. Separation will occur about 20
minutes before entry interface and the the next step will be
then to maneuver the crew moduleinto the entry interface
attitude. This is to get the heat shield
facing forward to take the the brunt of the the heat that's
going to be generated on entry. Just before entry interface,

(27:31):
we're going to perform a a firing of those crew module
thrusters. We're going to do a burn called
the raise burn. This is going to sweeten up our,
our entry flight path angle to ensure again that we, we get
that bullseye landing off the coast of San Diego.
So at 400,000 feet and about 17175 nautical miles from our
splashdown location, we'll hit entry interface and that's when

(27:53):
the the heat of, of the atmosphere is going to start
interacting with our heat shieldand we're going to create that,
that plasma trail. You see, this is a video from
Artemis One looking out the crewmodule windows towards the
plasma trail. The spacecraft is going to
perform some bank maneuvers. It's going to roll right and
left. And you can see that here in the
in the video to fine tune the the landing spot, our entry

(28:16):
guidance flight software will take care of that for us.
And that's all going to put us on target for that, that
targeted splashdown waiting for the recovery forces.
Once we get to about 325 mph andabout 24,000 feet altitude,
we're going to start deploying some of our parachutes.
All right. We'll have two drogue parachutes

(28:36):
that deploy and then they'll bring us down to about a a speed
of around 115 mph, at which point our three orange main
parachutes will deploy. And that's going to bring the
flight crew down to the safe splashdown velocity of 15 mph.
And that will be in a location right near where the recovery
forces are waiting to to extractthe flight crew from the

(28:59):
spacecraft. Once the spacecraft is landed in
the in the ocean, we'll perform a couple of other
reconfigurations and then we're going to power down the
spacecraft so that I can hand over to Dan Flores who is going
to be a part of the the recoveryteam to extract the flight crew.
All right. Thanks, Rick.
So again, Dan Flores, I am here representing the lane and

(29:20):
recovery team. I'll walk you guys through the
process of how we we get to the capsule to recover both the crew
and Orion back to the recovery ship.
I'm going to say this is my favorite part of the mission
because like Lakeisha said, we have our friends flying around
the moon. This is when we get to bring our
friends back home to their families.
Within 24 hours of splashdown, we're going to be positioned on

(29:41):
the recovery ship in the PacificOcean just off the coast of San
Diego, which is our nominal landing site.
The recovery ship is going to approach the landing zone and a
team of Navy divers on small boats, they're going to deploy
from the weldeck of that ship into the open water just prior
to splashdown. Our team here at Johnson Space

(30:02):
Center, they're going to map outwhere all the various elements
that that Rick mentioned, the drug parachutes, Ford Bay cover,
all the mortars that that jettisoned from Orion.
They're going to analyze where they're going to land relative
to the splashdown zone. We're going to map that out and
deliver that to our small boats and helicopters to ensure that
they're safely away from from that zone.

(30:22):
The Navy divers, they're going to be the first ones to approach
Orion. And once they initiate their
approach, they're they're going to conduct assessments of the
air in the water surrounding thecapsule to make sure it's safe
to approach and help the crew exit the Orion.
After ensuring the area is safe,they'll open Orion's hatch and
they're going to help the astronauts from their seats into
a large inflatable called the front porch, which you can see

(30:44):
on the screen there. Once all four astronauts are on
the front porch, they'll carefully drift several yards
away from from Orion and they'regoing to be awaiting pickup from
from the Navy helicopters that will be deployed from the
recovery vessel 2 helicopters. They're going to rotate picking
up all four crew members before before they return to the

(31:05):
recovery ship within a couple ofminutes of each other.
Once the crew has exited the helicopters, they'll transition
over to the ship's medical Bay and they're going to undergo a
routine post flight checkups andwe expect to recover the crew to
the medical Bay within two hoursof splashdown.
With the crews safely out of thecapsule and attendant to their
recovery, our team's going to start on the recovering of the

(31:28):
Orion capsule back to the recovery ship ship and we're
going to use procedures similar to the ones that we use for
Artemis 1. The Navy divers are going to
secure a system of lines to the capsule using connection points
and a pony collar that you can see around the capsule in that
image, and that's going to help tow Orion inside the ship.
When Orion's close to the ship, we're going to attach an

(31:50):
additional series of lines to help stabilize the capsule as it
transitions into the Weld decks.Sailors, our Navy sailors, are
going to help manage the lines and handle the lines.
They're going to pull on the lines with the assistance of a
NASA technicians that are going to operating key ground support
equipment to help stabilize the capsule as it comes in.

(32:11):
Once Orion is safely inside, we're going to start making our
return back to Naval Base San Diego and depending on our
distance to shore, the Artemis 2crew will either fly back to San
Diego on helicopters or they'll just stay on the ship in in and
ride back on the ship back to San Diego.
Once we arrive back on shore, the astronauts are going to
depart back to Houston while theNASA recovery team is going to

(32:34):
complete our post post splashdown processing activities
of Orion before it's transportedback to the Kennedy Space Center
in Florida. Some of these post operations
include initial assessments of the capsule and removal of any
scientific payloads that need toreturn back to their NASA center
of origin. Before I wrap up my opening

(32:54):
remarks, I just want to take a moment and really thank our
partners from the from the military who support our Artemis
recovery efforts and have supported NASA since early days
of of human spaceflight. Our joint NASA, Navy and Air
Force team, they've been training for several years
together to ensure a seamless recovery of Orion and the
Artemis 2 crew. We had a successful recovery of

(33:15):
the uncrewed Orion during Artemis 1 and we feel very
confident that through our testing and our training
alongside the Navy and other collaborators, we will make
Artemis 2 just as successful. So thank you and happy to take
any questions. All right, Thank you all.
We'll go ahead and take some questions both here in the room
and on the phone. For those joining by phone, just

(33:36):
a reminder, you can press *1 to raise your hand and *2 to put it
down. And as you asked your questions,
please limit yourselves to 1 to start and we'll go ahead and get
started over here. Thank you very much.
Tariq Malik with thespace.com. I think for Lakeisha or for

(33:59):
Charlie, just about the, the that opening of the window for
Artemis 2 as early February, I'mvery curious like what is that
earliest date that you could be looking at in February?
And what is the, the number of days per month that you're
looking at to, to kind of have that, that time period in which
to fly? Thanks.

(34:19):
OK, Charlie, why don't I start and then you can help me fill in
the gaps, right. So, so right now that window
could open as early as the 5th of February depending on how how
we progress. Of course, there will be more
work in order to be able to nailthat down.
In terms of launch periods, generally those windows go

(34:47):
anywhere. Our periods range anywhere from
4:00 to about 8 days in each month.
And so as we get closer, we'll be able to more clearly
communicate what those periods could be.
You want to add Charlie? No, I think you covered it.
OK, Thank you. So I.

(35:09):
Think this is for for Jeff. Approximately how much time
around sort of closest approach to the moon is that period that
that the crew is going to be doing that?
I mean about how much time is that?
Thanks. Yeah.
And, and it, it's really, I would say we think of it as a, a
full day of science as, as the crew approaches, right.

(35:31):
And they spend, I'll say about two hours in that, that real
close approach timeline where where you're really, you know,
you can't really tell the difference in the moon's not
changing size out the windows. Maybe the way I'd I'd phrase it,
because obviously you're still either approaching or leaving
the moon and you're, you know, your closest approach is only a
single point in time, but it's, it's a couple hours where you

(35:53):
can't really tell the difference.
On the other hand, we're, we're spending most of that day doing
science as we approach the moon and, and then as we leave it as
well. And so really we're dedicating a
full day of this mission to to observing the moon and, and
doing the lunar science that we can on Artemis 2.
Hey, Bill Harwich, Cbsi think this is for Jeff.

(36:15):
Can you go over with us what sort of I know you're on a free
return trajectory obviously, butif you have a major problem with
the TLI burn like like either the man module engine doesn't
fire under speeds. What what sort of abort options
are they are there once you get to that point in the mission And
how do you how do you get back if you don't get a full duration
burn that sort of thing? Thanks.

(36:37):
So I'm going to split your, yourquestion into a couple answers
because I'm going to avoid usingthe word abort on what we call
ATLI recovery. And so I do want to, to, to
differentiate there because we have what we're going to do the
TLI on the ohms that Orion has. And so we'll, we'll start with
that engine and where we'd have an issue and do a partial burn.
In that case, we have the optionof using the plus X thrusters

(37:00):
that we have on Orion in order to recover that TLI burn and
still go to the moon. And, and really that's our first
and, and primary goal is to get back on our free return
trajectory, get to the moon and,and do the, the full completed
mission. And so we have the ability to
recover in a partial TLI burn case.
We also have the ability to do an abort burn.

(37:21):
And there's, there's varieties of aborts, but we can use those
same plus X thrusters to bring the crew home.
Now it's going to take a few days.
It's not, it's not like low Earth orbit where you come home
immediately. It's going to take a little
while to come home, but we have we have the opportunity to to
continue to take the crew past the moon or if we don't think
that's prudent, we can take a more securities pathway and and

(37:43):
bring them home. But we would still use those
that second set of thrusters to do it.
Eric Burger, Ars Technica Question about the the the first
day you spend orbit around the moon, where you're checking out
Orion. You know, if there's a problem
with some spacecraft system, thermal or whatever that you

(38:04):
might be able to fix or address,is there a loiter period?
Could you make a second orbit and then go to the moon?
Or how long do you have to kind of check the spacecraft out
before you have to make a decision either to come back to
Earth or go out to the moon? I see.
I'll take that one as well. And so we in for many of our
launch days, it's really a propelling question how much

(38:27):
propellant we have in order to ensure that we can get Orion to
the moon. If we are unable to do that on
the first, the first opportunityof TLI and we stay another Rev
in the high Earth orbit, obviously the Moon's changing
position. And so we have a new set of
targets that we need to ensure that we've got enough propellant
in order to to fly past. And so most days we have that

(38:51):
opportunity to do a second Rev in the high Earth orbit and try
and fix whatever issue caused usto miss that first TLI
opportunity. And of course, that's our, our
preference, right? We want to, we want to solve
whatever problem we run into andthen we want to take the crew to
the moon. And so we have the opportunity
to do that again, assuming that the propellant is there.
And in most cases it is, it is launch day dependent, but that

(39:14):
is something we're preparing to do and something that in the
eventuality that we're unable todo TLI on the on the 1st Rev,
we'll do it on the second Rev. OK.
We'll take one more here and then we'll go to take a few from
the phone. Go ahead, Micah.
Thank you Micah Maidenberg, WallStreet Journal for Administrator
Hawkins. Sorry, did this.

(39:41):
OK, I'll try this again. I just given the time that has
elapsed since Artemis 1 competition that NASA is facing
with China at the moon and new NASA leaderships drive to move
faster. I wonder if you could talk about
what kind of pressure or urgencyyou and your your teams are
facing to make Artemis to happenand avoid further delays, you

(40:06):
know, outside of the window thatwe've been talking about this
morning. Thanks all.
Right. Well, that's a, that's a really
good question. So to be clear, right, the
message has been clear to us that this administration has us
to acknowledge that we are indeed in a, well, you know,
what people have commonly calleda second space race?

(40:30):
There is a desire for us to return to the surface of the
moon and to be the first to return to the surface of the
moon. With that being said, NASA's
objective though, is to do so safely, right?
And so we are certain and we have done assessments and we
have worked together as a team to ensure that the progress that

(40:54):
we are making is moving in an accelerated fashion, but that we
are doing everything that we canto also ensure that this mission
is successful and that we returnthe crew back home safely,
right? And so I don't want us to lose
sight of one for the other. It's a great question.

(41:14):
OK. We have a few on the phone.
We'll take a couple of those andthen we'll come back into the
room. First up, we have Marsha Dunn
with The Associated Press 0. Hi, good morning.
I know you're going 5000 miles beyond the moon, but what's the
closest point to the moon that you're going to come?
How far away will you be at the closest approach?

(41:37):
And also I'm I'm thinking you are all now students of Apollo,
which is considered still NASA'spinnacle half a century later.
Do you think Artemis can set a similarly high bar, or are these
comparisons unfair? And what, if any, take away
lessons from Apollo are you actually applying for Artemis 2

(41:58):
and beyond? Thanks so much.
So I think that was multiple questions.
Why don't we talk about the distance?
I'll. Take, I'll take the first one.
I think it's the easiest. So the the actual distance from
the moon is is actually launch date specific because we're
flying past the moon. Once we have a specific launch
date, we'll be happy to give youthe number for each of the
launch dates, but it is somewhere between 5000 and 9000

(42:20):
nautical miles past the moon. Let's see, that was the easy
one. That was the easy one.
OK. I think the second part of your
question, I think there were multiple parts, but I'm going to
hit what I can remember and we'll we'll do the best we can
here. I think you were harkening back
to Apollo and part of your question was, is this the same
or as we're doing, are we doing something different from Apollo

(42:43):
and so similar to Apollo? Yes, we are returning to the
Moon and yes we are moving in accelerated fashion to get to
the surface of the Moon. But for different from Apollo
though we are going back to the moon and to establish a
sustained presence on the moon, we want to demonstrate long term

(43:06):
capability on the surface of themoon.
We are going to continue to add capabilities on the surface of
the Moon. We are going with with
commercial and and internationallike minded partners and we are
demonstrating those capabilitiesso that we can go on to the next

(43:26):
destination. We've got our eyes set further
deeper into space on to Mars andbeing able to show that we can
establish a presence on Mars andfurther destinations.
And so we honor the Apollo missions and what was done and
even the flag that was left behind.

(43:47):
And we are planning to go to themoon again for a sustained
presence. OK, We'll take another from the
phone bridge, this one from Jackie Waddles with CNN.
Hi, folks. Thanks so much for doing this.
Quick question about a wet dressrehearsal.

(44:07):
Can you guys give any indicationon where you are on the timeline
for a wet dress and how far in advance of launch does that wet
dress need to be completed before you start facing schedule
pressures? So you want me to take that one?
I think you should take that 1C.All right.
So our wet dress rehearsal is planned as part of our pad flow.

(44:30):
There is a limited amount of activities that we purposely
take to the pad. All of our testing is done.
The majority of it is actually done in the VAB.
If it can be accomplished in thevehicle assembly building, we
want to do that before roll out.So when we roll to the pad, it
is to do wet dress or launch or both.
And in this case, it is to accomplish both in the single

(44:52):
pad flow. So our pad flow is a little over
2 weeks long. It sits at about 18 days of
work. We do carry a few contingency
days with us as part of our planand and our wet dress happens
toward the end of that flow. So the plan for wet dress is
very similar to what we did for Artemis one.

(45:12):
Of course this time a little bitdifferent because we have Orion
that is up on top and while it is not cryogenically fueled in
any way that is the rocket down below.
We do go through all of the Orion activities and terminal
count with the configuration, the commands, the responses and

(45:32):
the LCCS. And so that is really our best
risk reduction tests that we do as part of our Artemis 2
campaign. And today that test will be
finished up a few days ahead of launch.
And so it's about two to three days before we would start into
our two day launch campaign. OK, well take two more here in

(45:54):
the room. OK, next.
Thank you very much. Ivan Semanek with the Globe and
Mail in Canada. I have to ask, I mean, when
people have talked about the similarity with Apollo 8, one
way this mission is different isyou have an international
partner on board in the form of Jeremy Hansen.
I'm curious how that plays out and kind of the color and

(46:18):
character of the the mission so far and in the planning, you
know, how the international sideof it, you know, is exhibited.
And if there's time for a technical question, what happens
on the return if there are choppy seas or bad weather?
I'm just curious about what contingencies are.
Maybe Daniel can answer that oneabout how you plan for that.

(46:42):
Thanks. Yes, I'll take the first part of
your question then and then handit over to to Dan.
You know, Jeremy is, is just a pleasure to work with, right?
He's he's a fantastic astronaut.Every once in a while you get
the little bit of the Canadian accent and you know, we, we get
to joke about that a little bit.But in working with an
international partner, of course, you know, we have a, a

(47:04):
number of things where they bring a little bit different
perspective, which I think is, is helpful.
You know, there's a lot of timeswhere he'll ask, hey, why are we
doing this? Why, why are we doing this?
And I have to provide them an answer.
And, and of course, you know, every once in a while, you know,
I start thinking to myself, well, why are we doing this?
Why, why can't we do it a littlebit differently?
Why can't we do it a little bit better?

(47:25):
And having that, that, you know,outside perspective is very,
very helpful. And, you know, we, we appreciate
his inquisitive nature. He's one of the most curious
people I've ever met in, in my time here, always wants to know
exactly what's going on and, youknow, demands a level of rigor.
Not, not that we aren't rigoroushere anyway, but he just adds

(47:46):
that little bit on the top that I think is is truly helpful for
our flight here. And and the way he gets along
with the rest of the crew is I think demonstrative of that is,
is the one he's generally the one pushing to, Hey, why can't
we do this? Why can't we make this a little
bit better? And those are all great
questions and things that we truly enjoy about about working
with them. Yeah, with, with respect to the

(48:07):
choppy seas for landing right, ahand well ahead of landing, our
mission management team and our flight team, flight control
team, they're going to be and the recovery team, they're going
to be looking at the weather forecast for the landing zone
well ahead of time. If there's if we have
unfavorable conditions, right toviolate the the limits of the
the vehicle or for recovery operations decision is going to

(48:28):
be made to either move the landing location based on the
the entry trajectory. So we have various weather
alternate options and Rick couldgo into details and, and all of
those. But if for some reason after we
land the, the weather is unfavorable, right, the Navy
really just needs the small boats with the divers that they
get to the crew. We also have multiple
contingencies that we work with the Air Force to ensure that we

(48:50):
get personnel on time to the crew to to rescue them.
OK. We'll go back to here in the
room. Hello.
Everyone, Michael Burton, University of Nebraska, Lincoln,
Lakisha, you talked a little bitabout this, and I wondered if a
few of you could comment. This is such an exciting time.
It's so similar to perhaps when early colonists came to America.

(49:11):
We're talking about sending people to Mars.
This is one step in that direction.
So can you talk a little bit about what it means to you
personally and being part of this great time in Space Flight
history? I feel like we have a front seat
to a history making experience. It's funny to me that you talk

(49:36):
about colonists so you know, youknow, but you know, explorers,
etcetera, right, because I'm growing up.
That was always so interesting to me.
I mean, one of my favorite book series was the Laura Ingalls
Wilder series, the Little House series, right?
Where they were explorers themselves, right?
And they were trying to figure out how to live off of the land.

(50:01):
And very similarly, we are working with a team of pioneers
and ultimately when we get to the surface of the Moon, there
will be very similar explorationgoing on.
And the crew there on the surface of the moon will be
trying to figure out how to liveoff the land, how to live off

(50:21):
and utilize the regolith to build structure and to pull
water from water ice and to be able to to distill that down to,
to fuel that's needed and etcetera.
We are very much on the cusp, onthe verge of exploration in a
very similar way, and this is a very exciting time to be a part

(50:44):
of it. Yes, Paul Hunter in Broadcasting
Corporation. Just a follow up of a kind on
the Jeremy question. He's the first non American to
get out there. And I wonder what, setting aside
the curiosity that Jeremy brings, what was the thinking
that went into that decision to broaden these types of missions

(51:07):
beyond strictly Americans? And what do you think it means
for the space program going forward to take it to include
other countries and astronauts from other countries?
Well, the team is looking at me,so I think that this must be my
question, right? Oh goodness.
So I think I, I, I mentioned before, right, that we are going

(51:28):
with like minded countries, withfriends.
And I believe that this is a demonstration, part of the
demonstration of America's leadership very different from
the Apollo missions. Before we realize that there is
benefit from a strategic standpoint, from a resources

(51:49):
standpoint to be able to partnerwith others and other countries
as evidenced by the many, many countries that have signed on to
the Artemis Accords. Many countries still see NASA
and America's leadership as veryimportant for the future of
space exploration. And partnering with Canada,

(52:13):
partnering with Jeremy, going with our NASA team is a first
step in demonstrating that. OK, we'll go here.
Yes. Will Robinson Smith with Space
Flight Now. Thank you so much for taking the
time to do this with us. Question for Charlie Bachwell
Thompson. Regarding activities at the pad,

(52:33):
you mentioned that the crew willbe doing a walk down with the
emergency egress system. Will they be riding the baskets
down to the terminus point or just kind of checking them out
at the top of the mobile launcher?
And then just during the winter's rehearsal, if there's
another hydrogen leak, would that be a potential show stopper
that could result in the rocket going back to the VAB?

(52:54):
Or is the the plan to, you know?Power through that based off the
learnings from Artemis One. Thanks.
So the test at the pad with the crew is a walk down of the
system configured. It does include a basket
release, but at this time as part of the baseline it is not
does not include the crew ridingthe basket.

(53:16):
It is really close to the launch.
And so we certainly would not donot plan to have the Artemis 2
crew ride the basket. In regard to wet dress rehearsal
and what we would do in the event that we had an issue.
You know, we learned an awful lot during Artemis 1 and we
learned the relationship betweenthe flow rates, the pressures

(53:40):
and how how we have this manifest or could manifest into
leaks. We have made some modifications
to the ground side of the plate,the LH2 plate that we think
we'll see some improvement there.
And, and then also, if you recall, during Artemis One, we
had a leak with the replenish valve that is on the mobile

(54:03):
launcher, and that was during the launch countdown attempt #3.
So what I would, what I would say is that during Artemis One,
we learned a whole lot about howto manage our way through the
loading operations. That was very successful on the
third launch attempt. It was a really quiet tanking
until we picked up that leak on the replenish valve.
Since that time, we've actually modified that valve.

(54:27):
You recall we sent a red crew out to the pad, they torqued it.
We didn't have any additional issues, but we've, we've
actually made a, a change to that valve to kind of keep some
additional compression on it. So we don't expect to have that
problem again. We fully tested it in a cryo
environment in a, a cycle set that was very reflective of what
we would do for launch. We believe that that issue has

(54:48):
been put to bed. We intend to load the vehicle
very similarly to how we did it for launch.
Countdown attempt #3 and so we believe that we'll have success
there as well. And then I mentioned on the
backside of the ground plate, wedid make some additional mods.
The interface between the flightand ground plates are exactly
the same. So that's the reason that we

(55:10):
believe the loading procedures that we utilize for our tanking
test, which was successful, as well as launch countdown attempt
#3 which was successful. We believe that those will serve
us well. In the event that we had
something that needed to be repaired.
It would really depend on what that repair was.
You may recall that we ended up changing a seal out at the pad
and we were able to remain at the pad and and get that work

(55:32):
done. So really would depend on what
the the problem was. Eric Berger, Ars Technica, a
couple more from me is if you dolaunch on the 5th, is that a
night launch? I think is there, Do you have a
time or window for that day And then if there's a government
shutdown at the end of the month, does the launch slip day

(55:54):
for day essentially? Charlie, why don't you take the
first part and then I'll I'll follow up with.
You, Yep, I certainly can take the first part.
So most of our launch attempts in the in that February window
or in the evening, yes. And to the second part of your,
your question, in the past, we have typically been able to

(56:16):
prepare for and work with leadership to be able to request
and gain acceptances exceptions,to be able to continue very
safety critical activities in the event of a shutdown.
And we anticipate in this particular case that this is

(56:41):
obviously very safety critical and we anticipate being able to
request and being able to continue to to move forward on
Artemis 2 in the event of a shutdown.
OK, Micah, go ahead and then we'll go back to the phone
bridge. Hi Micah Maidenberg, Wall Street
Journal for Director Blackwell Thompson.

(57:02):
I'm curious, did the anomaly with the SRB during that test
over the summer cause any new prompting, any new checks or
analysis regarding the boosters that are going to be used for
the SRBS that are going to be used for Artemis 2A particular
with regards to crew safety? Thanks.
So I I'll take a shot at this and then I'll look to Lakeisha

(57:23):
for a little bit of help here. But that was on the new design
of the boosters which the issue that they had.
And I do not believe that there's an applicability for the
current booster design, which isbased on our shuttle heritage.
Yeah. So that's that's correct,
Charlie. That actually was a different
configuration of booster. And so while that was an

(57:46):
excellent demonstration of the evolution of potential future
booster designs, it has been made clear and and we have
confirmed that there is a difference between the two
booster configurations and not applicable to or impactful to
Artemis 2. OK, we'll go back to the phone

(58:09):
and we have Jeff Faust with Space News.
Good morning. Question for Jeff Radigan.
When you're doing that Proxops demonstration, the vicinity of
Icps, how close are you able to get to the upper stage or can
get to the upper stage before safety becomes an issue?
And how long would you have to actually perform those tests

(58:32):
before you have to move on to the next phase of the mission?
Thanks. So appreciate the question at
that time. Let's start with the fact that
ICPS is going to be passivated and so it's it's main propulsion
system will have all of the propellant vented from it and
it'll be relying just on its reaction control system.

(58:52):
And so that actually allows it to be at a low energy state and
therefore allows us to bring Orion as close as 10 meters and,
and fly in formation with the ICPS and be confident that if we
were to have an issue with ICPS,the crew would have plenty of
time to react and then do a, a breakout burn to take Orion away
from from ICPS. When I say plenty of time, I

(59:13):
mean on the order of, you know, roughly 10 minutes to observe
that, you know, something was wrong.
It gives us a chance to talk about it with the crew and then
perform a breakout burn. So due to the fact that we've
configured the vehicle ahead of time to be able to approach
Orion, we can bring what is fairly close in Space Flight, 10
meters and still be confident that there's not going to be a

(59:35):
safety issue if we have an issueon ICPS.
As far as how long the demonstration is going to take,
it's roughly about an hour and ahalf.
I think of it as really 245 minute sessions.
We've got a first session where the crew is actually piloting
off the nose of ICPS and then ICPS will do a turn about

(59:55):
halfway through and then we'll perform our, our flight test on
this on the the side of ICPS before doing our, our breakaway
burn. So about 90 minutes.
OK. Next we have Lauren Grush with
Bloomberg. Hey everyone, thanks so much.
I wanted to follow up on the Procs OPS demo as well.

(01:00:18):
I'm just curious how you use that demo to inform Orion's
future docking for Artemis 3? Is there additional testing
beyond this demonstration to ensure a smooth docking?
And will this ensure that Orion can dock with any type of
Lander? Just would love more.
Details there. Thanks so much.
See, so I'll take a shot at thatone.

(01:00:39):
The, the what we're really learning on Artemis 2 is, is, is
how closely our ground simulations and our ground
models match the spacecraft as it flies in space.
This is why we need a fixed target in space to actually
pilot Orion around such that theinputs that we've modeled on the
ground and that we have full confidence in as it's gone

(01:01:00):
through a full verification program.
And of course, you know, this is, this is not our first time
docking vehicles in space. We actually do that pretty
regularly, but we want to test this specific vehicle in Orion
in order to ensure that everything matches.
And so as as far as confidence going forward, I actually have
great confidence the vehicle today, even before doing the

(01:01:21):
proc stops demo that we would beable to dock with future
vehicles. It's something that it's, it's
an operation that we're quite confident in doing.
And I've done with many other vehicles before and gotten the
verification right on the first try.
But it also makes a lot of sensesince we have this opportunity
to go test it. We absolutely should go test it
in flight. And so that's really what what

(01:01:42):
we're doing with the procs OPS demo is testing our verification
in, in space. And so I'm looking forward to to
seeing how it correlates. I expect it'll correlate quite
closely. But of course, that's why we do
the test is is so we can we can learn something that we couldn't
learn on the ground. Next up on the phone is Marcia

(01:02:02):
Smith with Space Policy Online. Thanks so much.
I had two questions. 1 is on theICPS and the service module.
Will they be commanded to re enter?
You mentioned that you're going to be passivating the ICPS.
Will the reaction control thrusters be enough to be
orbited? And will the service module
automatically re enter? What happens to those but more?

(01:02:25):
Broadly, I had a question, Lakisha, you were talking about
the importance of this historically and I'm wondering
what the plan is for NASA and maybe gratial could.
Add something to this What is the plan for public engagement
during those 10 days? How are you going to bring the
public along? What are you going to have the
astronauts doing inside the spacecraft and being back to

(01:02:47):
Earth? What kind of cameras have you
got on the exterior of Orion? That kind of thing.
How do you bring the public along?
So I'll, I'll take a shot at thefirst one.
So the ICPS itself, so recall the ARB apogee, Raysburn puts us
in a 0 by 38,000 nautical mile orbit.
I mean that 0 means if we did nothing else, it's going to

(01:03:08):
impact the earth. And so after the Proxops demo,
Jeff and his team will will perform the perigee rays
maneuver for the the Orion spacecraft.
But the ICPS will continue down to that 0 perigee and has still
has reaction control jets to to basically target the the correct
part in the ocean for disposal. As far as the service module,

(01:03:32):
that's really on, on Rickshift, but I, I can answer that one
too. After they separate from the,
the, the CM from the SM, the SM disposes in the Pacific, you
know, behind or I mean behind the, the, the CM.
So and then the public, I think that's probably yours, Keisha.

(01:03:53):
Yeah. So I'll, I'll talk a little bit.
You refer to the historic natureof this mission.
It is fully our intention to turn us into somewhat of the
Artemis generation, just as the Apollo generation had the
mission and the astronauts and the work that was going on, on

(01:04:15):
the names of of every American and people around the world.
And so to that end, there is an expectation, and I'll get my
friends to talk about a little bit about the comp capabilities
in order to be able to understand directly what's going
on with the crew and the mission.
But there is an expectation thatdaily we will be able to have
press briefings, we will be ableto talk about the progress of

(01:04:39):
the crew, how they're progressing, how they're doing
so that we can bring the public along with us and that we can
all have some ownership in this mission.
Jeff. And Jeff, if you could talk a
little bit specifically about the comp capabilities so that we
can know what's going on every day.
So as we've as we fly further from Earth, of course you know

(01:04:59):
Judd mentioned will be on the various different, you know
communication systems. When we're on the TEDRA system,
the tracking and data realized satellite system, we have a much
higher bandwidth. And so I expect the the high
definition videos that you guys are expecting from us that you
see all, all the time on space station and we'll be able to
have that capability as we go further from Earth and we have

(01:05:21):
to go on to the deep space network.
We have a much lower bandwidth. And so we are prioritizing
getting video of the crew, getting video of the cameras.
If you saw from Artemis one, we of course had a video set up as
we got close to the moon and hadthat that down linking, but it
is a much lower data rate. And so our ability to transfer

(01:05:42):
high def video is is significantly reduced or not not
even possible on certain days ofthe mission.
And so we're going to keep the video on as much as we can.
But I do want to calibrate your expectations.
It's a lower bandwidth. It's going to look a little
grainy and that is just due to the distance and due to the
communication assets that we have available.
It it turns out the moon's a pretty long way from Earth when

(01:06:05):
we're start talking communication signals and
bandwidth, and so we just need to set our expectations there.
The good news is we're recordinga significant amount of video
during the mission and afterwards, of course, that'll
be that'll be released. That'll be amazing.
And I'll just add, we do plan 24/7 coverage of the mission,
starting with tanking all the way through crew recovery.

(01:06:28):
We've been working very closely with Jeff's team, Charlie's team
and the team that Dan supports to make sure we can show you the
crew and keep your prize of their activities.
And we're working hard to develop engagement opportunities
to bring the public along with us.
We recently launched an effort where anyone around the world

(01:06:49):
can submit their name to fly on a little microchip that it will
be inside Orion. We've invited the public
previously to submit ideas for the little plush animal or doll
that will ride with the crew andindicate when they're in space.
And we'll have more to come. OK.

(01:07:10):
Next from the phone we will haveAnthony Leone.
Hello, thank you for taking our questions today.
With the Artemis 1 mission, whenOrion came back and there were
issues with the heat shield for the and then it actually

(01:07:32):
postponed the Artemis 2 launch. So how was the heat shield with
this mission, what you learned from Artemis one, how did you
incorporate that in Tarnamis 2? And how confident are you that
the heat shield will be OK for Artemis 2?
And my second question, how doesit feel to be part of history

(01:07:53):
where you were sending humans back to the moon and someone
else said we are the Artemis generation.
How does it feel to be a part ofthis historic event?
Thank you, Rick. Why don't you start with that
question? All right, great.
Thanks for the question. So for those who are are less
familiar, on Artemis One, we performed a skip entry

(01:08:14):
trajectory, which means that we had an initial dip into the
atmosphere to bleed off some of our energy.
And then we, we, we lofted our our trajectory a little bit and
then entered a second time to toburn off the remainder of our
energy. As part of some of the routine
post flight inspections, it was noted that some of the char from
the heat shield had mechanicallyliberated on entry and we took

(01:08:36):
this problem very seriously. There were teams across the
country, both involving NASA, other governmental agencies and
private industry to really work to, to determine the cause of
this problem. Because this is, this is
ultimately had the the chance ofbecoming a, a crew safety

(01:08:57):
problem. And what those teams found both
the the the primary team as wellas an independent review team
that was set up was that the gasgeneration, as the ablative heat
shield decompose during entry, that gas generation, the
expectation is those gases dissipate through a porous heat

(01:09:20):
shield. And as the the gases are
generated and the the heat shield material turns to char,
it becomes more porous. And the ideal solution is as
that porosity increases, the gases that are generated get
dissipated and and and move awayfrom the spacecraft.
What we saw on Artemis 1 was thetrajectory that we flew.

(01:09:42):
This skip entry created a environment where the gases that
were generated as the heat shield decomposed the generation
rate exceeded the rate of the gas dissipation.
And when the generation rate exceeds the rate of dissipation,
we get a pressure build up. And that pressure build up
inside the heat shield is what ultimately resulted in that

(01:10:05):
mechanical separation or liberation that we, we saw an
entry on Artemis 1. So what did we do about it?
Well, we understood that and this was understood and
replicated in multiple tests. We had test facilities across
the country engaged in solving this problem.
And if you, if you look back, there's a great quote from
Wernher von Braun about a test being worth 1000 expert

(01:10:27):
opinions. Well, we had a number of tests
and they all helped back up this, this understanding of of
what was going on in the char. And so the Artemis 2 trajectory
that we're going to fly is goingto be one that is not going to
replicate that temperature environment which was conducive
to that, that increased gas generation rate.
And so the confidence that we have an Artemis 2 is built upon

(01:10:52):
numerous tests throughout the course of multiple years and it
helped inform how we were going to fly this mission.
And, and I have the utmost in confidence in, in the engine
engineering expertise that went into the testing and the flight
rationale that we are are are going to be able to bring the
Artemis 2 flight crew home safely at the end of the

(01:11:13):
mission. Rick, I want to emphasize, I
appreciate that summary. I want to emphasize as well,
right is we brought in expertisefrom all over in order to be
able to come to those conclusions.
Not only did we bring in the NASA expertise, but we also
brought along expertise from industry as well as DoD and DOE.

(01:11:35):
You mentioned there was an independent review team that
came in, a group of experts thatcame in as an assessed and
affirmed that they too agreed with the conclusions that were
drawn, the testing that was done.
They had an opportunity to to walk that down and fully
understand that as well and agree.

(01:11:57):
And this conversation was taken all the way through agency
leadership. And so the leadership at the
time as well as the current leadership understands and fully
affirms that the way that we aregoing as well as the trajectory
that we have chosen to be able to mitigate Artemis 2, we are
all on board with. And so from a risk perspective,

(01:12:21):
we feel very confident that we are going to be able to bring
our crew back safely for Artemis2.
And then the second question wasrelated to place in history.
I know at least amongst the flight directors here, none of
us were born during Apollo. And so this is our opportunity
to inspire a generation of, of kids to get involved in, in

(01:12:46):
future space exploration. And maybe one of those kids who
was inspired by what we do on Artemis 2 becomes that person
who sets the, the, the first footprints on the surface of
Mars. And so it's a it's an honor to
be a part of the flight directorteam leading the flight control
team to execute this mission. OK, we'll take another from the
phone from Christopher Mick of Hudson * Observer.

(01:13:12):
Good morning. Thank you.
I want to ask specifically aboutthe cube set that are going to
be on the ride along. If there's any more information
that can be provided on like thedeployment sequence, and if any
of the science they'll be generating will be applicable to
future Artemis data sets. So why don't I start and maybe
you guys can jump in and and provide a little bit of context

(01:13:35):
for whatever I missed. So yes, so we are going to be
bringing a few payloads along with us, as you call them cube
sats. And this is another opportunity
for us to partner specifically with other countries.
So far, what we've got confirmedis 3 cube sats that are fully

(01:13:58):
integrated, 1 is from Germany, and we call that TAC lease, and
that is an assessment of radiation effects on
electronics. The second one is with Saudi
Arabia and that is a series of instruments that is going to be
checking out space weather. And then the third is from South

(01:14:20):
Korea and that one is called K Rad and that one is going to be
checking out the biological effects of radiation.
And once deployed, those instruments will be able to go
off and independently assess allof their tests and science
objectives. Anything you guys want to add to

(01:14:40):
that? Let's see, Lakisha, I'll just
mention that as far as deployment that occurs after the
procs OPS demo and after Orion has done a separation burn from
ICPS. One of the last things ICPS does
is activate the launcher and putthe cube sats out prior to it
finalizing its disposal trajectory.

(01:15:00):
OK. We'll take a few more here in
the room and then we'll wrap up.Hi, Phillip.
Sauce again. I I think this is for Judd.
Could you talk a little bit about the launch abort modes and
maybe some of the calls that we might hear from the Capcom and
the crew during the launch? Thanks.
Yeah, sure. So we have continuous launch
abort capability throughout the window.

(01:15:22):
We also have a single engine capability.
So those are two a little bit closely rated but but but
different concepts. So right off the pad we have a
single engine capability that takes us if all the way to the
Pacific Ocean if we get a singleRS25 engine failed off the pad
and that mode that we would abort in if we had an additional

(01:15:46):
failure. So something that was emergent
during that time is the last abort mode, abort mode 1.
So that we have that abort mode all the way up until the last
jettison, which is about 3, a little over 3 minutes.
The single engine out capabilityalso, let's see it about 23

(01:16:07):
seconds or so, we gain a higher energy alternate mission.
So if we had a single engine outafter that 23 seconds, we could
make a mission to a low Earth orbit.
We would lose the the lunar mission, but we'd still make a
mission and be able to check outall of the life support systems
in a low Earth orbit. Our next major milestone would

(01:16:31):
be another 3 engine press call. So that's about 5 minutes 5515
ish or so whereby if we lost RS25 engine after that time, we
can make full nominal mission. During the time between last
jettison and we'll call it about7 minutes and 30 seconds, We

(01:16:52):
have what's called a mode 2 or auntargeted abort splashdown
capability. Whereas we would land in the
Atlantic Ocean at about that 7 1/2 minute mark.
We pick up what's called AOA capability abort once around
capability, whereby if we had anabort during the 7 1/2 minutes

(01:17:13):
to the the nominal meet go to around 8:00-ish minutes, then we
could make the Pacific Ocean stretch capability off the coast
of Baja. Bill.
Bill. And for Rick, you talked about
the environmental change for entry, but how is that done?
I mean, I've heard still described as a skip entry, just

(01:17:35):
not the same sort of skip entry.But I've also heard people say
it's not a skip entry technically anymore.
So can you straighten up exactlyhow the thing comes in to make
you comfortable with? Shield.
Sure. Thanks for the question.
We can we characterize it as a lofted entry for Artemis 2.
So what was done to redesign thetrajectory for Artemis 2?
We moved our target line closer to San Diego.

(01:17:58):
So in my opening remarks, I had talked about how entry interface
is going to start at 400,000 feet altitude and 17175 nautical
miles away from our landing site.
By redesigning that target line,we shortened our entry range,
which changes the temperature profile that the heat shield
acreage material is going to see.

(01:18:18):
And so by changing that temperature profile, that's what
gives us that confidence that that the heat shield is not
going to, we're not going to seethose mechanical liberations on
Artemis 2 like we saw on ArtemisOne.
Yeah, we don't, we don't, we don't go as high on that, Skip.
It'll just be a little bit of a loft.
It's Paul Hunter again from CBC News.

(01:18:39):
At the end of the day, what is the ultimate singular measure of
success for Artemis 2? You want me to start?
I'll take that one. I think you should.
You know, when we, when we look at what a successful Artemis 2
mission is, taking our crew backto the moon and bringing them

(01:19:02):
home safely and paving the way for the next Artemis mission is,
is really what we define to be afully successful mission.
And are there other things that we're going to do during Artemis
2? Absolutely.
We're going to go test the life support system in a high Earth
orbit. We're going to test the handling
qualities of Orion. We're going to go perform a test
flight. A test flight doesn't have one
singular objective. It's got many of them.

(01:19:23):
But in order for, you know, at least me personally to call this
mission fully successful, we need to go fly by the moon and
bring the crew home safely and and welcome them back with open
arms. OK.
I think that's a great way to end.
We're going to go ahead and wrapup today.
Thank you for joining us. You can TuneIn shortly at 11:00
AM Central Time this morning to hear more about the science and

(01:19:46):
technology aboard Artemis 2. And you can follow our progress
at nasa.gov.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Crime Junkie

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}NASA Artemis Mission Overview News Conference

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Crime Junkie

All Episodes

NASA Artemis Mission Overview News Conference

Stuff You Should Know