Inside Artemis II: Launch to Splashdown | NOVA | PBS

0:00 Artemis II crew is go for launch.

0:03 I copy that.

0:04 Good luck, Godspeed, Artemis II.

0:06 Let's go.

0:08 Ten, nine, eight, seven seven, RS-25 Three,

0:16 two, one, booster ignition, and liftoff.

0:20 The crew of Artemis II now bound for the moon.

0:24 Humanity's next great voyage begins.

0:29 A good roll pitch.

0:31 Roger, roll pitch.

0:35 [Narrator] The rocket powers its way into orbit

0:38 as designed by the engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center.

0:42 For this voyage, the crew has named their ship Integrity.

0:46 It's now traveling beyond low Earth orbit heading for the moon.

0:51 Good morning, Houston from—- [Narrator] On day six, Integrity reaches the moon.

0:57 The crew will do a seven-hour fly-by,

0:59 capturing high quality images of the moon's surface,

1:03 going farther from Earth than any crew has gone before.

1:07 But first, they want to name a crater located

1:10 at the western edge of the moon's near side.

1:14 A number of years ago,

1:15 we started this journey in our close-knit astronaut family,

1:19 and we lost a loved one.

1:21 Her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid,

1:23 the mother of Katie and Ellie, and we would like to call it Carroll.

1:29 And you spell that C-A-R-R-O-L-L.

1:41 [Narrator] On the ground,

1:41 the science team is receiving live reports as the astronauts

1:46 fly by the moon observing different geological features.

1:50 I think Copernicus is the easternmost feature that we can see.

1:54 A very nice ring to the north and the south

1:58 is with a lot of terrain shadow features.

2:01 We are getting a sneak preview from one of our SAW cameras

2:04 at what you're looking at, and we see some of what you're describing.

2:08 We love it.

2:09 The Artemis II crew has been trained

2:11 to observe the moon to find significant features.

2:15 As the spacecraft goes around the moon,

2:17 an astronaut can look at a spot from different angles.

2:20 It might take a spacecraft years to have

2:22 that trajectory where they can see all those angles.

2:25 The fly-by ends with a final flourish.

2:28 A total solar eclipse seen from space.

2:35 The sun has gone behind the moon, and the corona is still visible,

2:41 and it creates a halo almost around the entire moon.

2:44 But when you get to the Earth side, the Earthshine has already shone,

2:46 and the moon is just hanging in front of us, this black orb out in front of us.

2:55 Wow, it's amazing.

2:56 No matter how long we look at this, our brains

3:00 are not processing this image in front of us.

3:03 There's no adjectives; I'm gonna need to invent some new ones

3:06 to describe what we are looking at out this window.

3:10 But as the sun comes out, it's time for the Artemis crew to head home.

3:18 On day 10, Integrity separates from the service module and falls to Earth.

3:25 Reentry, I think, is probably the most critical part of the mission.

3:28 You're testing the Orion heat shield, which had some failure during Artemis I.

3:32 In terms of pucker factor, for me, that reentry will be the highest part.

3:36 There's no getting round it.

3:38 It is a time of trepidation,

3:40 and it is one of those moments where you wish them Godspeed.

3:46 And we have crossed the threshold, now entering the Earth's atmosphere.

3:53 This will be a six-minute blackout period.

3:55 No voice, no data from the crew.

3:58 [Narrator] Integrity's traveling 25,000 miles per hour,

4:02 faster than Artemis I, whose heat shield was badly damaged.

4:08 The minutes tick by.

4:11 Integrity, Houston.

4:12 Comm check, post blackout.

4:17 Houston, Integrity.

4:18 We have you loud and clear.

4:21 Quick cheers from the viewing room here in mission

4:24 control as voice communication reestablished with Commander Reid Wiseman.

4:29 [Narrator] NASA's gamble has paid off.

4:31 The heat shield has done its job.

4:35 Houston, Integrity.

4:36 Splashdown- Mission accomplished.

4:38 Command now.

4:40 Splashdown confirmed.

4:43 My hope is that this is just the beginning of not Artemis III,

4:46 IV, V, but Artemis 30, 50, and then you have a growing community on the moon,

4:53 potentially on Mars, throughout the solar system.

4:56 The really hard work for Artemis is still ahead of us.