Jeremy Hansen of Canada, Artemis II astronauts leave Earth’s orbit and head to the Moon
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Astronaut Jeremy Hansen became the first Canadian in history to walk on the Moon, as he and three other Artemis II crew members carried out the so-called translunar ignition that will take them to the next stage of their lunar adventure.
The Canadian space agency posted on social media that after nearly 25 hours in Earth orbit, NASA confirmed that all Orion critical systems were in order and Artemis II could continue its trajectory.
Their Orion capsule left Earth’s orbit right on cue and headed toward the Moon, about 400,000 kilometers away.
“America is back in the business of sending astronauts to the Moon. This time, further than ever,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman wrote on Twitter.
Nominal translunar injection complete burn. The Artemis II crew is officially on its way to the Moon.
America is back in the business of sending astronauts to the Moon. This time, further away than ever.
—NASAAdmin
It was the first such engine firing for a space crew since Apollo 17 on December 7, 1972, on its final moonshot of that era. During a news conference a short time later, NASA declared the burn “flawless”.
“Our crew is healthy and our spacecraft are performing really well,” said Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate.
Hansen spoke to NASA from the Orion capsule.
“Humanity has once again shown what we are capable of, and it is your hopes for the future that drive us on this journey around the Moon,” Hansen told Mission Control about 10 minutes after the thruster fired.
He described it as “phenomenal”, adding that he was glued to the windows to watch the scene.
NASA kept the Artemis II crew close to home for a day to test their capsule’s life-support systems before clearing them for lunar departure.
Now committed to the Moon, the Artemis II test flight is the preparatory work for NASA’s ultimate plans for a Moon base and sustained lunar life.
Roberta Bondar was Canada’s first female astronaut. She explains what the Artemis II crew experienced during launch and what can be learned from the mission.
taking pictures
Commander Reed Wiseman, who was testing cameras during the crew’s flyby, saw the planet as a shrinking sunlit globe, and said that taking photographs from that distance made it difficult to adjust exposure settings.
“It’s like going out of your house and trying to take a picture of the Moon. That’s what it feels like trying to take a picture of the Earth right now,” he told Mission Control.
NASA has not yet released any images taken by the crew, but is expected to do so after more extreme moments of the mission. One of them is the anticipated “Earthrise” image, which echoes the famous photo taken by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders in 1968 as his spacecraft circled the moon.
Wiseman, pilots Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Hansen will fly past the moon and then make a U-turn and fly straight home without stopping on the ground.
In the process, they will travel farther from Earth than any human before, breaking the Apollo distance record set in 1970.
All night from Friday to Saturday, Canadian journalists will have the opportunity to speak with Hansen during CSA’s first live space-to-Earth connection. During a brief connection of 20 minutes, Hansen will share his firsthand experiences and answer questions about the mission.
The next major milestone after that will be Monday’s lunar flight.
