Engineers, technicians, mission planners and four astronauts will fly around the moon next year at NASA's first crew member, Artemis Mission Artemis II, and are rapidly evolving.
At the agency’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, the team is working around the clock to perform integration and final testing of all SLS (Space Startup System) and Orion spacecraft elements. Recently, they completed two key milestones - connecting the previous phase of the SLS with the rest of the assembly rockets and Orion and moving the Orion from its assembly facilities for flight.
“We are very focused on preparing for Artemis II, and the mission is coming.” Lakiesha Hawkins, assistant deputy program executive at NASA, said he will also be hosting the mission management team during Artemis II. "This test flight of the crew will have four people dispatched around the moon, which will bring our future missions to the moon and Mars."
On May 1, technicians successfully attached the temporary cryogenic propulsion phase to the already prepared SLS rocket elements on Mobile Launcher 1, including its dual solid rocket booster and core stage, inside is the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) of Spaceport. After the rest of the rockets finished their work, this portion of the rockets generated 24,750 pounds of thrust for Orion. The team will soon enter a series of integration tests to ensure that all the elements of the rocket communicate with each other and communicate as expected by the launch control center. Testing includes verifying the interface and ensuring that the SLS system and the ground system are working properly.
Meanwhile, on May 3, Orion left its metaphorical nest, where Kennedy's Neil Armstrong operated and checkout facilities, assembled and conducted preliminary tests. There, the crew module is equipped with thousands of parts, including a critical life support system for flight, and is integrated with the service module and crew module adapter. Its next stop on the road leading to the launch pad is the multi-payment load processing facility, which will be carefully refueled with propellants, high-pressure gases, coolant and other fluids. The spacecraft and its crew need to operate and perform missions in space.
After refueling is completed, four astronauts fly on a mission around the moon and return over the course of about 10 days, will board the spacecraft's Orion Crew Survival System Space Kit to test all the equipment interfaces that will be required to operate during the mission. This will mark NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and CSA (Space Canada) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will board the actual spacecraft while wearing a space suit. After the crew test is completed, technicians will move Orion to Kennedy’s launch abortion system facility, where a critical escape system will be added. From there, Orion will move to VAB, integrating with the fully assembled rocket.
NASA also announced a second agreement with the International Space Agency to drive the mission's cube. These collaborations provide other countries with the opportunity to work with NASA to integrate and fly technologies and experiments as part of the agency's Artemis movement.
Kennedy’s engineers integrate and test the hardware and watch the final preparations for the mission, but the team responsible for the startup and flight missions have been busy preparing for various possible situations.
Kennedy’s launch team has completed more than 30 simulations completed in cryogenic propellant loading and final countdown scenarios. The crew has been simulating mission plans, including teams with mission control. In April, crews and flight control teams at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston simulated the lift for the first time through planned manual driving tests. The crew also recently performed long-term fit checks on their spacesuits and seats and performed multiple operations under various suit pressures.
The team is entering a busy task preparation. While hardware checkout and integration continue, over the next few months, the crew, flight controller and launch controller will begin practicing their role in the mission as part of the integration simulation. In May, crews will begin participating in pre-issuance operations and training for emergencies during Kennedy launch operations and observed simulations by the launch control team for the final countdown portion of the launch. In June, the recovery team will rehearse the procedures they will use in the mats on the Florida coast and provide support from the support and flight control teams along the Florida coast. The task management team is responsible for reviewing the task status and risk assessments about the problems that arise and making decisions about them, and will also begin practicing their role in the simulation. Later this summer, the Orion Stage Adapter will arrive at the VAB at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and stacked onto the rocket.
Through Artemis, NASA will send astronauts to explore the moon to gain scientific discoveries, economic benefits and lay the foundation for Mars' first crew mission.