!!!
— Ellie Sleightholm (@elsleightholm) April 4, 2026
we're so back pic.twitter.com/IHe8Uadnxj
More from NASA:
The crew of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadia Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, began their day in space to the tune of Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club,” before transitioning into their daily activities.
At wakeup, the spacecraft and its crew were approximately 169,000 miles from Earth and approaching the Moon at 110,700 miles...
Later Saturday, Glover will take manual control of the spacecraft to test its performance in deep space to provide more data about the spacecraft’s handling qualities across different movements. The demonstration is scheduled for 9:10 p.m...
After the piloting demonstration, the crew will review a list of the surface features the NASA science team has asked them to analyze and photograph during their six-hour flyby on Monday, April 6. The flyby period begins at 2:45 p.m., when Orion’s main cabin windows will be pointed toward the Moon and the Artemis II crew will be close enough to make scientific observations.
The crew will see the Moon from a unique vantage point compared with the Apollo missions, which flew about 70 miles above the surface. Orion will fly 4,066 miles away at closest approach at approximately 7:02 p.m. From that distance, the crew will see the entire disk of the Moon at once, including regions near the north and south poles.
As they pass the Moon, the crew will apply geology skills learned in the classroom and in Moon-like environments on Earth to photograph and describe features including impact craters, ancient lava flows, and surface cracks and ridges formed as the Moon slowly changed over time. They will note differences in color, brightness, and texture, which provide clues that help scientists understand what the surface is made of and how it formed.
Toward the end of the flyby, the crew will observe a solar eclipse from space as Orion, the Moon, and the Sun align in such a way that the astronauts will see our star disappear behind the Moon for about an hour. During this period, the crew will see a mostly dark Moon. They will use the opportunity to analyze the solar corona — the Sun’s outermost atmosphere — as it peeks out from the edge of the Moon. The crew also will look for flashes of light from meteoroids if they strike the surface to gather insight on potential surface hazards.
In addition to the flyby, the spacecraft is expected to surpass the Apollo 13 distance record by 4,102 miles and will reach its maximum distance from Earth at 7:05 p.m., a total of 252,757 miles from the planet. Apollo 13’s trajectory around the Moon carried its crew 248,655 miles from Earth.
That includes showing how people can work in concert to achieve amazing things with a stupid goddamned war going on, and the aggravatingly typical, "why do we have money to joyride in space but not to feed and house people?" Well, let's see...Trump is proposing to cut NASA's budget by 23% while doubling the defense budget to one-and-a-half-trillion dollars ($1,500,000,000,000).
Maybe ask Drunky McSecDef that question, rather than Mr Isaacman. Is it not better to spend billions on rockets that uplift us all versus trillions on rockets that "reign [Hell] down" upon our fellow human beings? Which choice allows us to touch the face of G-D?
Selah.
PS - No shade to Gil Scott-Heron. I dig his poem, and as a privileged whitey I would not presume to judge his perspective or artistic expression thereof. But I am just sayin'.
No comments:
Post a Comment