Even for those who’re 250,000 miles from Earth, sleep is necessary. Nonetheless, for all of the life-sustaining accouterments aboard the Orion spacecraft, the capsule lacked bedrooms, leaving the four-person Artemis II crew with a very weird sleeping association.
“I slept actually near an air con vent. And so I might get up and I simply see this massive hunk of metallic,” Glover advised CNET throughout a video name. “And it was like, ‘Oh, I am in house. I’m weightless.'”
Sleep wasn’t only a means for the astronauts to recharge; it additionally grounded them throughout their historic journey. Glover defined, “What actually resonated with me is we’re additionally people. It is like tenting, and this can be a essential a part of this journey.”
Artemis II was the primary crewed mission to the moon in over 50 years. It follows Artemis I, a 2022 unmanned mission that was the primary for NASA’s new Area Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. The aim for Artemis II was to have a crew check the spacecraft, life help methods, the SLS rocket and the procedures wanted for future lunar missions that may contain touchdown on the moon and even constructing a base there.
Glover, the Orion’s pilot, together with commander Reid Wiseman, mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, made up the Artemis II crew. The mission made quite a lot of historical past. It is the primary time a lady, a black man, or a Canadian has journeyed to the moon. The 4 Artemis II astronauts traveled 252,756 miles from Earth, farther than every other human being, surpassing the earlier file set by the 1970 Apollo 13 mission.
This picture of NASA’s Orion spacecraft was taken with a digital camera mounted on its photo voltaic array wings.
This wasn’t Glover’s first time in house. In 2020, utilizing a Falcon 9 rocket for liftoff, he piloted the Crew Dragon capsule to and from the Worldwide Area Station for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission, spending over 167 days in house. However Artemis II gave Glover the chance to be the primary to fly the Orion, a brand new car designed for Artemis missions. For almost all of the practically 10-day journey, Orion was on autopilot. However Glover had a number of alternatives to take guide management of the spacecraft to check its dealing with.
“It was such a deal with and a pleasure,” Glover mentioned about flying the Orion. “It was a check pilot’s dream to fly a brand new spaceship for the primary time by hand.”
Even after spending time coaching to fly in a simulator again on Earth, he was stunned by how responsive the Orion’s hand controller was and the way clear the cameras regarded, that are used to maneuver the craft across the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage that holds the gasoline for the higher stage of liftoff. He mentioned the precise digital camera and displays had been like “searching a window.”
Artemis II astronaut and pilot Victor Glover wears an orange flight swimsuit.
After I requested Glover if he felt like Han Solo when piloting the Orion, he retorted, “Han Solo needs to be me when he grows up!” All through my interview, Glover was gracious, passionate and humorous.
“I get to do stuff that is cooler than Han Solo. I imply, simply the truth that it is actual, it is higher.”
Whereas touchdown on the moon wasn’t within the playing cards for this journey, the Orion crew traveled about 4,000 miles past the moon, permitting them to see components of the moon that had by no means been seen earlier than. For comparability, Apollo missions flew about 70 miles above the moon to make landings, limiting how a lot of it they may really see.
Earthset captured by way of the Orion spacecraft window at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, through the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the moon.
The photographs that Glover and the crew took of the moon had been beautiful. Pictures just like the Earthset had been a reminder of how lovely our planet is and our place inside the photo voltaic system. The astronauts even witnessed a complete photo voltaic eclipse as they rounded the far facet of the moon. However not one of the photographs they took compares to what they noticed, in accordance with Glover.
“I might see the curvature of the moon. Depth is only one side that you simply can’t see within the photos. However here is the opposite factor, the photographs lack scale.”
When the Artemis II flew over the terminator, the crew mentioned that this boundary between day and evening was “something however a straight line,” in accordance with NASA.
For the lunar flyby, the Orion was shifting quick, 60,863 mph relative to Earth, however solely 3,139 mph relative to the moon, in accordance with NASA. The velocity meant the shadows throughout the floor had been continually morphing into totally different shapes. Glover was significantly enamored with the moon’s terminator, the place the sunshine and darkish sides of the moon meet. The terminator is not mounted and is dependent upon the moon’s place relative to the solar. As Orion moved, it remodeled into numerous shapes that regarded like letters of the alphabet.
“Folks know, I fell in love with the terminator once I acquired to see the actual one up shut. I watched the terminator go from a letter C to a letter D, which implies there was a degree when the moon was half mild, half darkish. It was pointing proper at me.”
The Artemis II astronauts take a selfie of themselves carrying eclipse glasses utilizing an iPhone 17 Professional Max.
Artemis II’s lunar flyby was a spotlight of the journey for many people on Earth, partially as a result of we might watch it in actual time on streaming companies like Netflix. Practically the whole mission was streamed stay on NASA’s web site and YouTube channel, making it really feel like a actuality present. One minute you are watching the crew eat, work out, take photographs of the moon; the following, there is a random jar of Nutella floating by one of many cameras. I requested Glover whether or not it felt like he was on a TV present whereas on the Orion.
“It didn’t really feel like a actuality present on my finish,” mentioned Glover. “So that you can see the science and listen to us describing the moon, and to see us flying the spaceship by hand, and to see bedtime and bathtub time and tooth brush time, that is what it is like. The mission was all of these issues.”
Glover was ecstatic to listen to how I and others felt so related to the crew throughout their mission. He mentioned it was necessary to NASA to let the world in on all the pieces it took to ship 4 individuals 1 / 4 of one million miles away.
“I feel that possibly one of many actually, most particular issues about this mission is how a lot you had been in a position to see,” Glover mentioned with a smile. “It makes me really feel good that you simply felt such as you had been there.”
Watch this: Getting Private With the Crew of Artemis II | Tech At present
