Artemis 2 Mission (Day 4)

Artemis 2 Mission (Day 4)  RATING: U — UNIVERSAL (ALL AGES) – (Video credit: NASA): NASA's Artemis II mission pressed forward on Flight Day 4 (April 5, 2026), with the crew—Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch (all NASA), and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen (CSA)—nearing lunar distance at mission elapsed time of roughly 3 days. This 22-minute highlights reel from Johnson Space Center captures a packed schedule blending technical demos, science prep, and deep-space adaptation, underscoring Orion's resilience en route to the historic lunar flyby. Manual Piloting Demo: At 9:09 p.m. EDT, Koch and Hansen took controls for a 41-minute test of Orion's  thruster modes: six-degree-of-freedom (full 3D translation/rotation) and three-degree-of-freedom (limited axes). This deep-space evaluation—building on Glover's earlier helm time—gathers handling data for future docked missions. Wiseman and Glover repeat it Flight Day 8 (April 9), maximizing ground team insights into spacecraft responsiveness amid microgravity and distance delays. Earlier, teams resolved a wastewater vent issue by sun-heating frozen lines, restoring urine dump capability after heaters targeted nozzles. Lunar Flyby Prep: The quartet reviewed lunar science targets: a NASA list of Moon surface features for photography/analysis during the six-hour flyby starting 2:45 p.m. April 6. Orion's cabin windows orient moonward at closest approach, enabling observations from ~60 miles altitude. Crew selfies via solar array wing cameras—novel vantage—transmit soon, blending ops with outreach. Mission Context: Post-trans-lunar injection (Flight Day 2: 5-min-55-sec burn, +1,274 ft/s), prior burns raised apogee (43,730 miles) and perigee. Sleep at 3:15 a.m.; wakeup noon April 5 for Day 5. Artemis II—first crewed Orion/SLS flight since Apollo—tests systems for Artemis III landing. Crew's poise amid complexity spotlights human ingenuity. - International equivalents: MPAA: G | BBFC: U | CSA: Tous publics | FSK: 0 | CBFC: U | OFLC: G | CRTC: C | NICAM: AL No content that could disturb, frighten or harm children of any age. No violence beyond slapstick, no crude humour, no romantic content, no supernatural threat, no scary imagery, and no language beyond mild colloquial terms. Fully appropriate for unsupervised viewing by all ages, including infants. Content Warnings Required: None.

    2026-04-04
  • Apr 2026
  • 20m
  • 5 views
Episodes