GoKawiilAs the Artemis II lunar mission moved into its third day on Friday, and with the spacecraft’s big engine firing behind it, the four astronauts on board had a little more downtime.
So the four crew members—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen—had their first opportunities to speak with their families at length, and also did a couple of media events. They held medical conferences with physicians back in Houston, although these were apparently routine since none of the crew members were experiencing space adaptation sickness.
And they had some time to take pictures. Wiseman, the mission’s commander, sent a particularly spectacular image on Friday morning that showed our planet’s night side (with a relatively long exposure). Among the beautiful details in this image were not one but two auroras, as well as zodiacal light in the bottom right of the image. The Sun is visible in the distance, lighting the far side of the Earth.
No corrective burn needed
“They are in great spirits,” said Lakiesha Hawkins, a senior exploration official at NASA, of the crew during a news conference on Friday afternoon. “Obviously, they’ve been very, very busy, especially leading up to the translunar injection.”
That firing of Orion’s main engine occurred on Thursday evening, setting Orion on course for a pass around the Moon. They will make their closest approach on Monday afternoon before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Southern California, on Friday, April 10.