Artemis 2 in good shape cruising towards the moon

WASHINGTON — A day after lighting its engine to head to the moon, the Artemis 2 Orion spacecraft is performing well with only minor issues.

At an April 3 briefing, NASA officials said they were satisfied with the performance of Orion on its first flight with astronauts on board as the spacecraft nears the halfway mark between the Earth and moon.

“Our subsystems continue to perform very well. Everything is nominal and as expected,” said Howard Hu, NASA Orion program manager. Analysis of data from Orion’s translunar injection burn April 2, which sent Orion out of Earth orbit on a free-return trajectory around the moon, showed propellant usage was within 5% of predictions.

“It was really good to see it go so well,” he said, calling performance of the main engine “outstanding.”

The performance of that burn led controllers to cancel the first of three planned trajectory correction maneuvers planned for April 3. “We’ll roll that in to the next planned trajectory correction tomorrow,” said Judd Frieling, Artemis 2 flight director.

The crew has been dealing with some minor issues. The Artemis 2 astronauts, in a downlink with media late April 2, mentioned that the Orion cabin was colder than desired. “We’re wishing we had the lower temperature sleeping bags with us,” said Victor Glover, pilot of Artemis 2.

At the briefing, Frieling said that after launch controllers had turned off some heaters in the shell of the capsule, causing cabin temperatures to fall into the mid-60s Fahrenheit. Controllers responded by turning on some heaters and adjusting fans, raising temperatures into the low to mid-70s.

Hu said there was an issue with a helium pressurization system for thrusters in the service module, but that there is a redundant system that is working well. “No mission impacts,” he said, adding that if the redundant system failed the thrusters could still operate in “blowdown” mode.

Frieling and Hu said that they’re also learning about how Orion works with astronauts on board. An example is a number of caution and warning notices for the crew regarding issues that are not significant or require action by the astronauts.

“The cautions and warnings are based on limits, and those limits are established jointly with the engineering team and the flight operations team,” Hu said. “Sometimes we don’t get it fully right.”

“This is learning how the vehicle operates with the human system in the loop,” Frieling added.

The crew will continue to do various tests and demonstrations while headed to the moon, with a closest approach to the moon on April 6. “They are in great spirits and they are really excited about the opportunity to be there,” said Lakiesha Hawkins, acting deputy associate administrator for exploration, at the briefing.

The astronauts themselves offered similar assessments when asked during the April 2 media event. “It’s just so extraordinary,” said Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who is on his first spaceflight. “I really like it up here. I wish I could have gotten here sooner.”