At 1:47 a.m. EST (6:47 UTC) on Nov. 16, 2022, NASA’s Orion spacecraft launched atop the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from historic Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on a path to the Moon, officially beginning the Artemis I mission. Over the course of 25.5 days, Orion performed two lunar flybys, coming within 80 miles (129 kilometers) of the lunar surface. At its farthest distance during the mission, Orion traveled nearly 270,000 miles (435,000 kilometers) from our home planet. NASA’s Orion spacecraft successfully completed a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at 9:40 a.m. PST (12:40 p.m. EST) as the final major milestone of the Artemis I mission. Artemis I set new records of performance, exceeded efficiency expectations, and established new safety baselines for humans in deep space. This is a prelude to what comes next—following the success of Artemis I, human beings will fly around the Moon on Artemis II. — NASA — Return to the Moon Source: NASA (https://images.nasa.gov/) Licence: Public domain (work of the U.S. federal government, 17 U.S.C. §105) Audio is served by the publisher; Budi does not host or modify it.
0:07Three, two, one, and liftoff of Artemis I! After years of testing and talking and testing some more, Artemis 1 finally carried the dreams and aspirations of the world back to the moon. We are not just going to the Moon. We're gonna prove that we can live and work on the Moon and establish an outpost on the moon for future distant exploration out to Mars and beyond. I knew this would be an exciting mission. I mean, we haven't left low Earth orbit in over 50 years. Nobody on my team had done it. Most of them weren't even alive back when we did it last. That was a big moment. It was a moment for me personally. I mean how many times in your career do you get to be a part of FIRST? We are putting something that we dreamed about into reality.
0:58It sent the message really to the world that we have laid the foundation for a generational rocket. And here we go! In the wee hours of that morning of November 16th came, it all fell together and the payoff was a launch that shook you to your foundation. Artemis 1 traveled approximately 268,000 statute miles from Earth. Distant retrograde orbit, we're going to be about 38,000 miles away from the lunar surface. It is incredible in terms of how well the systems perform on board the Orion spacecraft. The Orion program added flight test objectives to the mission. For a first flight, listen, that's unheard of. We learned so much about how this vehicle is going to operate and we proved that it is ready to put humans on board.
2:12It was impressive, it was daunting, but it was so impressive that the flight was designed in the way it was that enabled us to declare success. Orion back on Earth. For Orion and for Artemis, this is just the starting point. The next thing is getting ready to fire the crew on Artemis II. Ladies and gentlemen, your Artemis 2 crew! So waiting in the wings, Artemis Two. And now, the humans are getting on board. Thank you to the NASA workforce. Thank you our industry partners, everyone in Europe that's working for this. America has made a very deliberate choice over decades to curate a global team and we are going to the moon together. We need to celebrate this moment in human history. It is the next step on the journey that gets humanity to Mars.
3:10Am I excited? Absolutely! Initial reactions to that news was just intensity. Finding out was a humbling experience for me. Shocking. It's the best word I can say. Disbelief, an immense sense of honor and responsibility. Putting the first four crew members on Orion is what I'm so excited about. I want to hear the stories about what it is like to live in the Orion spacecraft. We're going to test out the vehicle's ability to conduct rendezvous maneuvers, crew's ability who actually fly Orion manually and most importantly we're gonna test the environmental control system. We got humans on board, we got to keep them safe, we gotta keep them breathing and then we're gonna have them come back at that high-speed entry of 32
4:01The Speed of Sound for Future Missions We want to make sure that we've gone through those time and time again so that when launch day rolls around, we're ready for anything that the hardware may throw at us. By building incrementally these capabilities, improving these capabilities that we have through the Artemis campaign, we will be able to live on the moon and be able perform science that is very important for deep space exploration. I am ready for Artemis II. The SLS team is ready for Artemis 2. We are ready for Artemis2. We ARE ready. Alright, I'm ready. Let's go!
This transcript was generated automatically from the recording, so it will contain mistakes — especially around names and places.