Artemis II Flight Day 3 Highlights

Artemis II Flight Day 3 Highlights: Includes external spacecraft surveying activity, images of Earth from the Orion spacecraft, the crew’s daily planning conference, crew exercise, crew reaches travel distance of more than halfway to the Moon, and a Canadian Space Agency space to ground video communication.

What is said in the film

Good morning from the Artemis flight control room here. And Mission control. Houston. I'm Nilufar Ramji with NASA communications as part of your orbit three flight control team, we are coming to you live with 24 seven continuous coverage of the Artemis two mission. You are seeing live views right now of from one of the solar array wings aboard the Orion spacecraft.

As mentioned not too long ago, there is a surveying activity taking place while the crew is asleep. This is where the flight control teams on the ground here maneuver their solar array wings to take a look at the command module, which is sort of on the top left side of your screen, as well as a service module, which is on the bottom part of the spacecraft. This surveying activity essentially checks for any damage. Post-launch, the flight control team on the ground will conduct an additional surveying activity post lunar flyby. For now, this is Mission Control Houston.

Now, as mentioned, the live views on the left side of your screen are from the solar array. Wings on, on Orion. And we are seeing live views right now capturing the engines. You can see some venting happening in the images in front of you right now. Welcome to the Artemis Flight control Room.

And welcome to flight Day three of the Artemis two mission, a test mission and the first flight of humans on Orion. I'm NASA's Leah Cheshire Mustachio here in the flight control room. With the orbit one team now being led by flight director Jeff Ratigan. It was a big day for the crew yesterday as the trans lunar injection burn was completed, committing Orion to fly around the moon on flight Day six and return to Earth on flight Day ten. Today we have another burn scheduled.

That's the OTC one burn outbound trajectory correction, one that's slated for 5:49 p. m. central time and would be an eight second burn using the Reaction Control System thrusters. We've also been getting some imagery down from Orion taken by the crew after the trans lunar injection burn. This photo showing the beautiful Earth outside the window of the spacecraft.

As the crew was flying away. And this next photo, a backlit Earth, as the crew was departing from trans lunar injection. And if you look very, very closely up to the top of your screen, you can see the aurora borealis. And on the left in those clouds, a couple of lightning strikes. You're getting a live look inside the Orion capsule at our four Artemis two crew members, now 106,000 miles away from Earth.

We are standing by for their daily planning conference, where teams on the ground will be relaying up information for the crew as they start flight day three. From left to right, we have NASA astronaut Christina Cook read Wiseman, Victor Glover, and on the far right Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. As we get a look inside Orion, a little scenes that are for you. The interior habitable volume is 330 cubic feet. So that's about the size of two minivans.

This is 60% more cubic volume than the astronauts had during the Apollo missions. Integrity. Small request. If you could tilt the camera down slightly. Towards the lockers.

We have a great view of Christina and some of the boxes up above. Things. Yeah. No problem. Chris, I did not mount.

I just kind of friction said it and I'll get a better spot for it later. Later today and we'll get a more permanent mouth going. It sounds like a great plan. Thanks. He said integrity already from morning DPC.

Good morning. Integrity. We are so happy to be on board with you today. You guys look great. That cabin config looks amazing.

We would love to be on board as much as possible today. Well, stop streaming for the family conferences. But would request to come back on board afterwards to share your mission with the world. I have quite a number of topics for you today. I'll start with trajectory.

We are actually going to continue evaluating the need for OTC one based on the small magnitude of the burn. We'll have an update for you later. A couple of vehicle statuses. In order to address what we saw last night, with the small increase in OCS tank pressure, accompanied by a small decrease in the OCS helium tank pressure, we we did some, should do some troubleshooting. We closed the valve OCS, helium, ISO one.

You can see this on the top left of your prop, plus X page. We're continuing to look at that. Don't have a full story for you yet. Okay. I'm not at the displays right now, but I will take a look at that soon.

All right. It was really great to wake up this morning and look out the window and see the full moon, the front of the vehicle. And it's no doubt where we are heading right now. And, really appreciate all the work done there. It was also really awesome.

Thank all the photos. I can't believe that that actually all worked. And, when I saw that OTC one was like a oh point eight meter per second burn this morning on targeting, I thought we might skip it. And that is pretty impressive. All right.

Signing off. Thanks. And copy. All integrity. That was the conclusion of the daily planning conference.

However, if you listen to the start of that conference, you did hear the relay to the crew that we hope to, have the cameras on as much as possible throughout this flight day to allow us to share their journey with the world. So we intend to, be able to share the crew with you as much as we possibly can. They are going to move into some of their other tasks today. Again, you heard them discussing the OTC one burn. That's orbital trajectory correction burn or sorry, outbound trajectory correction burn.

And Christina Cook taking, the camera ship to show us a wastewater dump. So, you heard Commander Reid Wiseman that Commander Reid Wiseman reporting that they don't necessarily hear those wastewater dumps, but that they do see them. So you're getting a live look outside the windows of the Orion spacecraft as they conduct that wastewater dump. Integrity. We copy that successful wastewater dump.

This is Artemus. Mission control, I am NASA Leah Cheshire, joined here by Canadian Space Agency astronaut Artemis to backup crew member and a Capcom Jenny Givens. Thanks for joining us. My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

So I would love to know a little bit about your experience as a Canadian Space Agency astronaut. What is that journey been like for you? It has been overwhelmingly positive. I mean, I feel very lucky to be in the role that I'm in. But it's just really the honor of my life to work missions like this.

Like seeing one of my very dear, Canadian colleagues and my other dear friends in space has been pretty phenomenal. So the past few days have been exceptional, but also just to be embedded here, at NASA, as a Canadian astronaut, we have an excellent partnership, and we're boots on the ground here at NASA. And I see every day really the results of what you get when you have a shared mission and you work together and, we just have a really bright future. I feel very positive about being here. I agree, it's very exciting.

So you've been training as an Artemis two backup crew member alongside the alongside the crew very closely. Can you tell us what that's been like? Yeah, absolutely. It's been a long road. So back of crew members.

We're kind of in an interesting spot because we do all of the crew training. And it's a very developmental mission. It's very nascent. So we're still learning. We do a lot of developmental work and contribution.

Right there alongside with the crew. There were six of us assigned to this mission, and four of us are up there now. So that's a joy to see. And as we approached the mission, my work really transitioned to, support. So what can I do to get these guys safely off the ground?

Andre and I both worked as astronaut support people. You saw Dre strap, our crew into the capsule, which was very cool. And now I have the pleasure of setting the Capcom console. So supporting them with my training and knowing what they know. And, just, I have a lot of joy every day.

I see them up there, so it's been great when we can do that. Integrity. Houston, with a status and a timeline. Delta. Go ahead.

Chris. All right. We wanted to let you know that we are stepping into our burn cancellation, procedure here from the ground. We have attempted to suppress any stretch of caution and warnings associated with that. I just want to give you a heads up.

And then we'll let you know when we have a new active burn plan. Mission planning officer here in Artemis flight Control of Houston, Texas, reports that the crew is go for exercise. As the solar arrays are now in place, we'll be looking to see if there's any movement. While, Commander Reid Wiseman begins his exercise portion. Orion is currently 113,922 miles away from our home planet, 152,000 miles away from the moon.

This is Artemis mission control, as you can see, some motion on your screen from this camera on the solar array wing. Looking back at Orion, we are expecting that to be from Commander Reid Wiseman exercising yet again the crew's timeline to exercise 30 minutes each during this mission just keeps their bones and muscles strong while in the microgravity environment. This type of motion doesn't damage the spacecraft, but the solar array wings are locked and parked to keep them from being damaged by any loads imparted from this movement. In the background, you're getting a look at NASA astronaut Victor Glover, pilot for the Artemis two mission preparing to exercise and what he is using is the flywheel device. This is Artemis mission control.

Two days and 14 minutes. Mission elapsed time for the first flight of humans aboard Orion. And I am joined here by Paul Beam, Orion crew support and thermal thermal systems manager. Thank you for joining us, Paul. Thank you very much for having me, Leah.

Appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. Well, tell us a little bit about your role. You just came from the Orion mission evaluation room, is that right? Yeah, actually, I just did.

I was just checking our systems to see how things were going, and, I am really pleased. So my role is I manage the hardware related to crew and, all the crew systems on the vehicle, the eco system, the thermal systems, the suits, the flight crew equipment that are on the vehicle. And, so been doing that for almost 14 years now. Wow. That's impressive.

And when we're talking about the eco system that stands for Environmental control and Life Support system. So what all makes up equals. Equals. Yes. The, biggest thing everybody thinks about for eco is the life support system.

The, the pressurization system, the air revitalization system that we have. And then the other parts of it that are also part of it is the thermal aspect of it, where we're cooling the air, to be able to keep the crew temperature down exactly where they want it to be comfortable in the cabin. And so, that is also part of our system as well. Yeah. We heard them make some calls a couple days ago about being a little chilly.

And your team is the one that works on making sure they're comfortable. Yes. We've been working that the last couple days. Trying some adjustments. It's one of the things I will stress with the new vehicle.

We are learning every single day that we're flying this vehicle right now, especially with the crew in it. We flew Artemis one. We learned some things about the systems there, but now we have the crew involved, which adds a whole new dynamic to the vehicle. And that is what is really, what we're looking at today and learning how to interact with the crew and adjust things as we need to to make the crew comfortable. Yeah.

That's fantastic. And you also work with the food systems a little bit as well. So they're actually getting ready for a mid-day meal. We've been fortunate enough to have in-cabin views, for some of today. And we saw them getting out some of their food.

So can you tell us about the food warmer? Yeah, the food system is, the crew is a lot of the food that we use is very similar to what they fly. And ISIS is the rehydrated food. And, what we use, on Orion, we have a what we call a food warmer. It's about a little suitcase size device.

And our biggest challenge is mass and volume on Orion going to the moon. And so we had to reduce the size of a galley. We would love to fly a galley, but we just can't because of the mass and volume challenge. So we have a suitcase that basically the crew inserts their food into the suitcase. It's a warming plate and heats it up to about 155 degrees.

Oh my goodness, that's much warmer than I expected you to say. It's really impressive. It's what they use for doing the hot drinks, the warming up, the the the food that needs to be warmed up so that it tastes better when it's warmer. And, so they can put about 12 packages in there, to be able to heat up those and be able to have some hot food during the flight. I'm impressed.

I, used to be a taste tester here, and so I always enjoy trying the food. I found it to be really good and so it is amazing what they can do. Yes, it really is. This view outside the Orion spacecraft. You can see those solar arrays positioning and a reminder you can keep up with where Orion is at any time by visiting nasa.

gov/trek. Artemus. Currently, the spacecraft is 122,500 miles away from Earth and 146,000 miles away from the moon. We are two days, one hour, three minutes into the flight of our mass to the first flight of crew aboard Orion. Spacecraft, now 123,000 miles away from Earth.

You're getting a live look. Inside the capsule is our four crew members. Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Jeremy Hanson and Christina Cook are wrapping up their midday meal, getting the opportunity to take photos out the window of Earth and the moon. We are in an loss period. Loss of signal from the ground side.

This was tracked and, communicated to the crew. However, we do receive communications from the crew members. Obviously, we have their live video right now. This is Artemis mission control. You're currently seeing a live look again inside the Orion spacecraft.

In the center of the screen is NASA astronaut Chris Christina Cook, who is serving as one of the two mission specialist on the Artemis two mission. She's currently completing her planned daily exercise using the flywheel exercise device, which operates similar to a rowing machine but can complete different types of exercises, including resistive anaerobic exercises. And they were discussing moving the lunar fly by cabin configuration. During this particular activity, the crew will develop and document an ideal configuration of the Orion spacecraft internal cabin for the lunar flyby observation period, which will take place on flight day six, and they will deploy various cameras and equipment that will be used during the flyby, and also work to adjust the spacecraft's lighting and positioning of each crew member to ensure, once they make it to that flyby on flight day six, that everything is well set up and thought out and placed so that they don't have to worry about trying to figure out where all those cameras and equipment will be going on that actual flight day itself. Now the crew is going to start working on their pre lunar flyby cabin configuration activities.

So they're going to be deploying some cameras and other equipment that they plan to use during the flyby on flight day six, to just ensure that they know where everything should be set up, where it should go and where each crew member should be stationed for that observation period. Houston integrity on one for lunar flyby setup. Go ahead. If you still have the HSP, we're wondering in Jeremy's position if he's looking out the window there. Well, the moon be right side up or upside down.

But we have a great view of checking. Alternatively, is the north pole of the moon going to be in the vehicle plus x direction? Yeah, we're going to go with the first way you worded the question and say if it's upside down in the position Jeremy is in right now. So if he flips over, it will be right side up. That's how it works, really.

On your screen, you're seeing a live look inside the Orion spacecraft, which is named integrity. And it was named integrity by its crew. The crew is currently working through a pre lunar flyby cabin configuration activity. All four of them are working to deploy various cameras and equipment that will be used during the flyby, which is planned for flight day six of the mission. They will also be adjusting the spacecraft's lighting and positioning of each crew member to ensure that all of the equipment, cameras, as well as the individual placement of each of them, works and will be seamless during the flyby observation period.

And there you can see on your screen that the crew just turned out the lights on the Orion spacecraft. So now it's quite dark. And again, they are adjusting the lighting as part of that lunar flyby cabin configuration activity so that they can test the lighting, as well as all of the camera equipment that will be used during the lunar flyby. And this is Artemis mission control. NASA astronaut Christina Cook is currently working through the Deep Space Network Emergency Communications Developmental Flight Test objective, during which she's basically conducting a check out of that emergency communication system on Orion.

While connected that to that deep space network. And integrity. Houston, we have some news to share with you. As of 30s ago. You are now closer to the moon than you are to us on Earth.

Wow, Jackie, thank you for sharing that with us. We all kind of had a collective, I guess, expression of joy at that. It's hard to imagine, but we can see here, here on our flight, PFG that we are at 118,000 nautical miles. So, yeah, you can do the math. We can see the moon out of the docking hatch right now.

It is a beautiful sight. We're seeing more and more of the far side, and it's just a thrill to be here. Houston, coffee's. Now, while they are officially closer to the moon than they are to Earth, they have not entered what is known as the lunar sphere of influence. Yet.

That milestone will come on flight day five. And when that milestone happens, that is when the moon, instead of the Earth, becomes the main gravitational force acting on the Orion spacecraft. Yeah. Jackie, we just wanted to sync up with you. We know that there was some talk about some burnt, smell when the from the heaters.

Okay, Jackie. So, this time we turned on the WC and the toilet, and it had that burning odor smell that we just hadn't experienced before. And so we just wanted to talk to you about it. We know we had a briefing on that. So the crew has smelt it once or twice before, but this time was stronger and was different.

And we opened the door for everybody in the cabin could smell it, so we just thought we'd check in with you. We're not overly concerned right now. It's probably related to what we're we're told to expect, but we just wanted to have a quick conversation. Integrity, Houston. Honor and Earth one for the toilet.

We've discussed, based on the preflight reports and the Ada readings, we're going to continue discussing on the ground, but we are comfortable, continuing with the emergency comm df2, and we are comfortable with you continuing to use the toilet on board the Orion spacecraft. The crew is currently awake. They are wrapping up some final activities for the day. NASA astronaut Christina Cook is currently working through a deep Space Network emergency communications development tool. Flight test objective.

Victor is also working on a test objective way related to the D5 camera imaging and taking some images at variable varying focal lengths of subjects such as the Earth and the moon to evaluate the window optical effects on imagery. And then NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman is working to transfer some data from the flywheel, which is the exercise device on board the Orion spacecraft. And then coming up here in a little bit, CSA or Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen will support a public affairs downlink event for the Canadian Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. Do you hear me? We hear you loud and clear.

We're a long ways away. It's probably a bit of a delay, but, great to chat with you. I got a few people joining me today. I got Victor and Reid here. Christina's working hard right behind the camera right now.

Hello, Jeremy, please set. And so, on behalf of Canada, I just want to say thank you to my colleagues for this opportunity, and. And I would like to remind Canadians if we can send a human around the moon in 2026, just imagine what we're capable of doing next. Thanks so much for joining us on board. Integrity.

It's a great ship here, and we're closer to the moon today than we are to Earth. This is a big milestone for us. And, we look forward to sharing more with you in the coming days. Wishing you all the best of luck. Thank you all.

Bye bye.

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