Artemis and Starship for Yuri's Night

Happy Yuri's Night AKA International Day for Human Space Flight! Instead of a retrospective of last year's top posts for today's Flashback Friday, I'm looking back at two tests of spacecraft intended for crewed flight and ahead at a piece of equipment to be developed to support crewed missions. I begin with Farther and Faster: NASA's Journey to the Moon with Artemis.

At 1:47 a.m. EST (6:47 UTC) on Nov. 16, 2022, NASA’s Orion spacecraft launched atop the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket from historic Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a path to the Moon, officially beginning the Artemis I mission.

Over the course of 25.5 days, Orion performed two lunar flybys, coming within 80 miles (129 kilometers) of the lunar surface. At its farthest distance during the mission, Orion traveled nearly 270,000 miles (435,000 kilometers) from our home planet. On Dec. 11, 2022, NASA’s Orion spacecraft successfully completed a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at 9:40 a.m. PST (12:40 p.m. EST) as the final major milestone of the Artemis I mission.

Artemis I set new performance records, exceeded efficiency expectations, and established new safety baselines for humans in deep space. This is a prelude to what comes next—following the success of Artemis I, human beings will fly around the Moon on Artemis II.

We have demonstrated our ability to go farther and faster than ever before, opening the door to explore Mars and other destinations throughout the solar system. This is the story of Artemis I.

I'm being a good environmentalist by recycling what I wrote in Seeker and Vintage Space look back at Apollo 17 and ahead to Artemis for Moon Day.

The successful test flight of the Orion capsule around the Moon was one of the reasons I declared that 2022 has been another great year in space. Stephen Colbert interviews the Artemis II crew for Yuri's Night covered the next step. After that, landing on the Moon again. Here's to my covering the Artemis II mission for next year's Moon Day!

The Artemis II mission will not happen by this year's National Moon Day, but there will be more preparations and there are other Moon missions, so I will have something to blog about.

NASA announced one of those preparations in NASA Artemis Lunar Terrain Vehicle (Official NASA Trailer).

NASA hosted a news conference from the Johnson Space Center in Houston April 3, 2024, to announce the companies selected to move forward in the development of the Lunar Terrain Vehicle under the LTVS (Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services) contract. The award leverages NASA’s expertise in developing and operating these next generation "Moon buggies" to build commercial capabilities that support scientific discovery and long-term human exploration on the Moon. NASA intends to begin using the LTV for crewed operations during the Artemis V mission on the surface of the Moon.

Artemis V is a long ways off. SpaceX will have to develop a landing vehicle and NASA will have to test it first for Artemis III.

Speaking of SpaceX, it had its own successful launch of a crewed vehicle in Starship | Third Flight Test.

On March 14, 2024, Starship successfully lifted off at 8:25 a.m. CT from Starbase in Texas and went on to accomplish several major milestones and firsts.

Starship's six second stage Raptor engines all started successfully and powered the vehicle to its expected orbit, becoming the first Starship to complete its full-duration ascent burn. Starship went on to experience its first ever entry from space, providing valuable data on heating and vehicle control during hypersonic reentry. Live views of entry were made possible by Starlink terminals operating on Starship.

This rapid iterative development approach has been the basis for all of SpaceX’s major innovative advancements, including Falcon, Dragon, and Starlink. Recursive improvement is essential as we work to build a fully reusable transportation system capable of carrying both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, help humanity return to the Moon, and ultimately travel to Mars and beyond.

This is corporate PR, so it only portrayed the positive parts of the project. LiveScience covered the rest when it reported SpaceX's incredibly powerful Starship lost in the Indian Ocean after reaching orbit for 1st time.

SpaceX's powerful Starship system spent roughly an hour in orbit performing test maneuvers for the first time ever. But two simultaneous communications errors means the rocket won't be recoverable.

SpaceX's Starship rocket just reached orbit for the very first time, but now it's gotten lost upon reentry.
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After conducting a number of maneuvers during the spacecraft's hour-long flight in orbit, mission control reportedly lost contact with Starship as it reentered Earth's atmosphere somewhere over the Indian Ocean.

Starship likely broke up or exploded over the ocean, SpaceX confirmed.

"The team has made the call that the ship has been lost, so no splashdown today," Dan Huot, SpaceX's communications manager, said during the company's livestream of the launch. "But again, just it's incredible to see how much further we got this time around."

Here's to the fourth launch being a complete success from start to finish.

That's a wrap for Yuri's Night, when I celebrate the promise of space. Now stay tuned for Apophis Day, when I report on the perils of space.