NASA's Artemis 2 lunar mission involves a delicate dance for the Crew-12 SpaceX launch.
It is the best of times, and it is (far from, actually,) the worst of time for NASA, with two large astronaut flights converging toward the same week, while a rare Arctic cold front throws mission schedules into a logistical maelstrom.
It tells the story of NASA's most well-known mission in over fifty years, the Artemis 2 manned journey around the moon, which coincided with SpaceX's Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). In order to replace the Crew-11 astronauts, who were forced to return to Earth early owing to an undisclosed medical concern with one of the astronauts, that liftoff has been moved up the schedule.
Schedule conflicts resulting from the amount of astronaut flights launching into space are a major issue for NASA, but they also show how far the organization has come in bringing human spaceflight back to American soil. However, Crew-12's launch options have become a complex dance around Artemis 2 due to the overlap with exceptionally cold conditions plaguing Florida's Space Coast and the rest of the nation.
As of Friday afternoon, January 30, NASA and SpaceX are aiming to launch Crew-12 as early as possible on February 11. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is set for 6:00 a.m. EST (1100 GMT) on that day.
The results of the two-day wet dress rehearsal for Artemis 2, a crucial prelaunch fueling test of the mission's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, will affect the schedules of both missions. The test is currently set to take place from Saturday evening, January 31, through Monday, February 2.
"The timing in between missions sort of depends a little bit as to what happens [with the wet dress rehearsal]," NASA Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich stated at a Friday press briefing.
Crew-12 is essentially at the mercy of Artemis 2, which has a window that closes just five hours before to Crew-12's immediate launch opportunity on February 11 at 6:00 a.m. EST (1100 GMT). Artemis 2 is expected to launch as early as February 8.
Stich explained the implications of several Artemis 2 scenarios for Crew-12's capacity to launch to the space station. "If Artemis were to … have a great wet dress, proceed into their FRR (flight readiness review) and launch on the 8th … we would defer all the way to the 19th," Stich said.
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen will go around the moon and back on the Orion spacecraft for ten days with Artemis 2. Since Apollo 17 in 1972, this is the first crewed lunar trip, and it will require a significant amount of NASA's attention and resources.
There are a lot of things to "deconflict," Stich noted. NASA uses military ships that are positioned at sea at different locations throughout the world for astronaut launches so that crew capsules can land and be recovered in case of an emergency or abort. Crew-12 and Artemis 2 share those resources.
Another area where the two missions overlap is where the astronauts get ready for flight. "We tend to use the full suit-up room in the O&C (operations and checkout facility) where the crew stays," Stich explained. He said that Crew-12 had the "option to go use SpaceX's suit-up room..." at pad 39A.
Crew-12 would be delayed until February 13 if SLS successfully completes wet dress rehearsal, tries to launch on February 8, but is forced to stand down. In actuality, Crew-12 would only be able to try a launch at the earliest window on February 11 if Artemis 2 failed its wet dress rehearsal, regardless of any weather delays.
"If they get into a wet dress and they need another wet dress, but then didn't proceed in this window, we could go on as early as the 11th or 12th," Stich stated. "So we have all these different scenarios just depending on what happens."
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev will board SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule Freedom for an extended stay on the International Space Station (ISS) when Crew-12 launches atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
Unlike the usual six-month crew rotation, Freedom will dock with the Harmony module's zenith (space-facing) port and stay there for at least eight months. For Meir and Fedyaev, who will both be making their second trips to the International Space Station, this will be their second launch into orbit. Rookies in spaceflight Hathaway and Adenot said they are happy to be traveling to space with a team as close-knit as theirs.At a Crew-12 press conference on Friday, Adenot stated, "We learned to build trust among each other because, of course, we are doing a risky job where all of our lives depend on the skills and competence of the others, and we trust each other very much for that."
Even while there are some aspects of spaceflight you just have to experience to find out if you're ready or not, Meir, who is now serving as Crew-12 commander, stated that the two greenhorns are well prepared for their upcoming journey.Technically, they're so ready," Meir remarked. With the exception of "the thing that you can't prepare for, and that's just what it feels like to be living in microgravity 24 hours a day."
"When you arrive on the space station, you're kind of like a newborn, because you've mastered all of these other technical things, but it's the basic newborn skills that you don't necessarily have," Meir stated. "Those are the ones that are really difficult to figure out how to do when you first arrive — how to eat, how to drink water, how to go to the bathroom."
During their stint aboard the orbital lab, the Crew-12 astronauts will continue ongoing station maintenance and take on several microgravity research experiments. Much of the science aboard the ISS investigates the effects of microgravity on human physiology, and Crew-12 will participate in studies into muscular strength at varying gravity phases, brain imaging, meditation and mindfulness, exercise science, and lunar landing technology simulations that will inform future Artemis missions.
"The science that we're doing is really exciting because it's looking not just on what can benefit astronauts in real time on the space station, but toward the future of exploration missions, and of course, has so many different impacts back here on Earth as well," Meir said.
It tells the story of NASA's most well-known mission in over fifty years, the Artemis 2 manned journey around the moon, which coincided with SpaceX's Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). In order to replace the Crew-11 astronauts, who were forced to return to Earth early owing to an undisclosed medical concern with one of the astronauts, that liftoff has been moved up the schedule.
Schedule conflicts resulting from the amount of astronaut flights launching into space are a major issue for NASA, but they also show how far the organization has come in bringing human spaceflight back to American soil. However, Crew-12's launch options have become a complex dance around Artemis 2 due to the overlap with exceptionally cold conditions plaguing Florida's Space Coast and the rest of the nation.
As of Friday afternoon, January 30, NASA and SpaceX are aiming to launch Crew-12 as early as possible on February 11. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is set for 6:00 a.m. EST (1100 GMT) on that day.
The results of the two-day wet dress rehearsal for Artemis 2, a crucial prelaunch fueling test of the mission's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, will affect the schedules of both missions. The test is currently set to take place from Saturday evening, January 31, through Monday, February 2.
"The timing in between missions sort of depends a little bit as to what happens [with the wet dress rehearsal]," NASA Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich stated at a Friday press briefing.
Crew-12 is essentially at the mercy of Artemis 2, which has a window that closes just five hours before to Crew-12's immediate launch opportunity on February 11 at 6:00 a.m. EST (1100 GMT). Artemis 2 is expected to launch as early as February 8.
Stich explained the implications of several Artemis 2 scenarios for Crew-12's capacity to launch to the space station. "If Artemis were to … have a great wet dress, proceed into their FRR (flight readiness review) and launch on the 8th … we would defer all the way to the 19th," Stich said.
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen will go around the moon and back on the Orion spacecraft for ten days with Artemis 2. Since Apollo 17 in 1972, this is the first crewed lunar trip, and it will require a significant amount of NASA's attention and resources.
There are a lot of things to "deconflict," Stich noted. NASA uses military ships that are positioned at sea at different locations throughout the world for astronaut launches so that crew capsules can land and be recovered in case of an emergency or abort. Crew-12 and Artemis 2 share those resources.
Another area where the two missions overlap is where the astronauts get ready for flight. "We tend to use the full suit-up room in the O&C (operations and checkout facility) where the crew stays," Stich explained. He said that Crew-12 had the "option to go use SpaceX's suit-up room..." at pad 39A.
Crew-12 would be delayed until February 13 if SLS successfully completes wet dress rehearsal, tries to launch on February 8, but is forced to stand down. In actuality, Crew-12 would only be able to try a launch at the earliest window on February 11 if Artemis 2 failed its wet dress rehearsal, regardless of any weather delays.
"If they get into a wet dress and they need another wet dress, but then didn't proceed in this window, we could go on as early as the 11th or 12th," Stich stated. "So we have all these different scenarios just depending on what happens."
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev will board SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule Freedom for an extended stay on the International Space Station (ISS) when Crew-12 launches atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
Unlike the usual six-month crew rotation, Freedom will dock with the Harmony module's zenith (space-facing) port and stay there for at least eight months. For Meir and Fedyaev, who will both be making their second trips to the International Space Station, this will be their second launch into orbit. Rookies in spaceflight Hathaway and Adenot said they are happy to be traveling to space with a team as close-knit as theirs.At a Crew-12 press conference on Friday, Adenot stated, "We learned to build trust among each other because, of course, we are doing a risky job where all of our lives depend on the skills and competence of the others, and we trust each other very much for that."
Even while there are some aspects of spaceflight you just have to experience to find out if you're ready or not, Meir, who is now serving as Crew-12 commander, stated that the two greenhorns are well prepared for their upcoming journey.Technically, they're so ready," Meir remarked. With the exception of "the thing that you can't prepare for, and that's just what it feels like to be living in microgravity 24 hours a day."
"When you arrive on the space station, you're kind of like a newborn, because you've mastered all of these other technical things, but it's the basic newborn skills that you don't necessarily have," Meir stated. "Those are the ones that are really difficult to figure out how to do when you first arrive — how to eat, how to drink water, how to go to the bathroom."
During their stint aboard the orbital lab, the Crew-12 astronauts will continue ongoing station maintenance and take on several microgravity research experiments. Much of the science aboard the ISS investigates the effects of microgravity on human physiology, and Crew-12 will participate in studies into muscular strength at varying gravity phases, brain imaging, meditation and mindfulness, exercise science, and lunar landing technology simulations that will inform future Artemis missions.
"The science that we're doing is really exciting because it's looking not just on what can benefit astronauts in real time on the space station, but toward the future of exploration missions, and of course, has so many different impacts back here on Earth as well," Meir said.
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