Space.com has a good one from Artemis II pilot Victor Glover about a moment that almost changed the mission. He told it on October 18 in a discussion with former astronaut Chris Hadfield at the Starmus VIII festival in Tenerife.
What happened
- On April 2, the second day of the mission, Orion was swooping back toward Earth after a highly elliptical orbit that took it about 38,000 miles out. It was approaching its closest point, roughly 100 miles up, ahead of the translunar injection (TLI) burn that would send the crew toward the Moon.
- About 15 minutes before that burn, Orion issued a warning that indicated a possible cabin leak. “If it had happened five minutes later, we may not have been able to have that burn,” Glover said.
- The question was blunt: “Are we going to do a TLI and burn to go to the moon, or are we putting on our spacesuits to prepare to come back to Earth right now?”
- It turned out to be a false alarm, as NASA flight director Judd Frieling told reporters at an April 2 briefing. Orion fired its main engine for about five minutes and 50 seconds and the crew headed for the Moon at around 24,500 mph.
- Glover, commander Reid Wiseman, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen went farther from Earth than any humans before, reaching 252,756 miles. They splashed down off San Diego on April 10 after nearly 10 days.
My take
I love the human side. A time-critical alarm, a short list of options and a crew and mission control that stayed calm enough to figure out whether it was real. That’s the skill you want in anyone running something important: know your options, verify the alarm and decide. It works for rocket burns and for 2 a.m. pager alerts.
Have a blessed day! And Happy Hacking!
