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Artemis II astronauts sleep “like a bat” or wherever they can fit themselves comfortably in their crammed spacecraft quarters as they hurtle through space towards the moon, NASA mission commander Reid Wiseman revealed.
After the adrenaline of their historic launch on Wednesday for their 10-day trip around the moon, the four-person crew has only managed to squeeze in a couple “very short naps” in their first 30 hours in space — and in very strange places.
“Christina (Koch) has been sleeping heads down in the middle of the vehicle, kind of like a bat suspended from our docking tunnel,” Wiseman told ABC News from the 330 cubic-foot Orion spacecraft the crew has named “Integrity.”
“Victor (Glover) has a nice little nook wedged in there. And then Jeremy (Hansen) has been stretched out on seat one, and I’ve been sleeping under the displays, just in case anything goes wrong,” Wiseman said.
The team revealed they were shocked by how flawlessly the launch went Wednesday evening, with the rocket blasting from the Kennedy Space Center just moments after the two-hour launch window opened.
The astronauts are now embarking for the moon, where only 24 humans have gone before, after completing a test orbit around Earth.
They’re expected to reach the moon in four days, loop around and then return back to Earth.
Artemis II had been slowly circling the Earth in a large elliptical orbit since the launch, but an injection burn last night accelerated the capsule to about 22,000 mph and broke it free from orbit — launching it into the empty 250,000 mile vastness between the Earth and moon known as the cislunar space.
On Monday, day six of the mission, the crew will come within 4,000 miles of the moon and see its far side in sunlight for the first time with human eyes.
While much of the dangerous journey lies ahead, Wiseman revealed the “spectacular” moment that left the astronauts speechless as they looked back home.
“There was a moment about an hour ago where Mission Control Houston reoriented our spacecraft as the sun was setting behind the earth,” Wiseman told ABC.
“And I don’t know what we all expected to see at that moment, but you could see the entire globe, from pole to pole.
“You could see Africa, Europe, and if you looked really close, you could see the northern lights. It was the most spectacular moment, and it paused all four of us in our tracks.”
English (US)