Commander Reid Wiseman’s view is one we haven’t seen of our world since 1972:
Category: Space
Artemis II Crew on Way to Moon
Today, NASA made history by launching the SLS rocket and Orion capsule for the first crewed mission to cislunar space since Apollo 17 returned to Earth in 1972.
Watching the launch was wild. As Jason Snell mentioned to me, it is amazing how much the SLS sounds like a space shuttle, thanks to its mountain of recycled and upgraded shuttle-era components.
That sound — in contrast to footage that looks very similar to the launches of the old Saturn V — really struck a chord in me.
Artemis II Launch Being Captured in Apple’s Immersive Video Format ⇢
I’m gonna have to dust off my Vision Pro for this.
NASA Reportedly Starting the Process to Move Away From the SLS ⇢
NASA’s SLS rocket program has been a mess for a long, long time. Many industry-watchers have wondered why NASA would spend billions of taxpayer dollars on its own rocket while the private space industry is working on their own heavy-lift vehicles that could accomplish similar things.
It seems that NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman may be asking the same question, according to Loren Grush, Ed Ludlow, and Julie Johnsson at Bloomberg:
Under the original plan set years ago, Boeing’s Space Launch System rocket would have launched a crew of four riding inside the Lockheed Martin Corp.-built Orion crew capsule to the moon, with the spacecraft then putting itself in the moon’s orbit. A [SpaceX] Starship lander would then meet up and dock with the capsule around the moon, before taking astronauts down to the lunar surface.
Artemis II Headed Inside for Repairs ⇢
Stephen Clark, writing for Ars:
A day after NASA officials expressed optimism that they could be ready to launch the Artemis II mission around the Moon next month, the space agency’s administrator announced Saturday that a new problem will require the removal of the rocket from its launch pad in Florida.
The latest issue appeared Friday evening, when data showed an interruption in helium flow into the upper stage of the Space Launch System rocket, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman wrote in a post on X. Isaacman posted a more thorough update Saturday, writing that engineers are still examining the potential cause of the problem, but any fixes must take place inside the Vehicle Assembly Building.
iPhones in Spaaaaaace ⇢
On Wednesday night, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman revealed that the Crew-12 and Artemis II astronauts will be allowed to bring iPhones and other modern smartphones into orbit and beyond.
“NASA astronauts will soon fly with the latest smartphones, beginning with Crew-12 and Artemis II,” Isaacman wrote on X. “We are giving our crews the tools to capture special moments for their families and share inspiring images and video with the world.”
Artemis II Pushed to March to Address Wet Dress Rehearsal Issues
Artemis II is going to be on the ground a little longer. After a two-day “wet dress rehearsal” test in which cryogenic propellant was loaded into the rocket, a liquid hydrogen leak and an issue with a valve crew module hatch led to the launch being scrubbed for now.
“NASA now will target March as the earliest possible launch opportunity for the flight test,” wrote Rachel H. Kraft.
Stephen Clark at Ars Technica reminds us that such issues are exactly why these tests exist:
Challenger at 40: Christa McAuliffe, America’s Teacher in Space ⇢
Michael Kranish, writing at The Washington Post ( Apple News), reflecting on the life and impact of Christa McAuliffe:
On that day four decades ago, I was standing alongside McAuliffe’s parents and friends. I was a reporter in the Boston Globe’s bureau in Concord, New Hampshire, and I was assigned to follow McAuliffe’s journey from Concord to Cape Canaveral. I visited McAuliffe in her home, flew with her son’s class to Florida and witnessed the disaster.
Challenger at 40: Lingering Guilt ⇢
Bob Ebeling was anxious and angry as he drove to work on the morning of Jan. 28, 1986. He kept thinking about the space shuttle Challenger, cradled on a Florida launchpad 2,000 miles away. Ebeling knew that ice had formed there overnight and that freezing temperatures that morning made it too risky for liftoff.
“He said we are going to have a catastrophic event today,” recalled his daughter Leslie Ebeling, who, like her father, worked at NASA contractor Morton Thiokol and who was in the car in 1986 on that 30-mile drive to the company’s booster rocket complex outside Brigham City, Utah.
Artemis II Set to Send Crew Around Moon, Echoing Apollo 8
If everything goes to plan, NASA’s giant Space Launch System rocket will launch in early February with four astronauts strapped into the Orion capsule:
- Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist
- Victor Glover, pilot
- Reid Wiseman, commander
- Christina Hammock Koch, mission specialist
This will be the SLS’ second time to launch, after a successful test flight back in 2022. That test included an uncrewed Orion that showed unexpected damage to the capsule’s heat shield. In December 2024, NASA released a report outlining what caused the damage. The good news was that the program was ready to move forward:
How the Apollo Lunar Rover Worked ⇢
I have a soft spot for 1960s space hardware, but the lunar rover is my favorite. It was designed to meet a ridiculous set of limitations, and achieved amazing success. Jared Owen’s new video breaks down how it was built, how it worked, and why it’s worth remembering:
ISS in Real Time ⇢
Next week will mark 25 years of continuous human presence on the International Space Station. Robert Pearlman at Ars Technica has linked to a website that celebrates the monumental achievement:
Fortunately, the astronauts and cosmonauts on the space station have devoted some of their work time and a lot of their free time to taking photos, filming videos, and calling down to Earth. Much of that data has been made available to the public, but in separate repositories, with no real way to correlate or connect it with the timeline on which it was all created.