Artemis II: from the resolved malfunction to the toilet, to the increase of perigee before starting the journey to the Moon

After the launch of NASA's SLS (Space Launch System) and the Orion Integrity spacecraft for the Artemis II mission, which occurred last night, the astronauts faced a few minor inconveniences. According to reports, when the capsule was already in low Earth orbit, a malfunction was detected in the toilet (note: Howard Wolowitz was not available to study the problem). The malfunction was promptly resolved so that the mission could continue in good spirits. An abnormal warning light also illuminated in the early hours in space, but mission control assisted the astronauts in resolving this issue as well.

At 13:06 (Italian time), the Artemis II mission crew was awakened by the song "Sleepyhead" by Young and Sick to kick off their workday. This includes monitoring Orion's systems and preparing for the ignition of the ESM (European Service Module) engine to increase the perigee.

Artemis II continues its mission to the Moon

The ignition of the main engine lasted 43 seconds, raising the lowest point of the orbit and starting a trajectory change to then proceed toward the Moon while leveraging Earth's mass for additional thrust. After the successful ignition, crew members rested before continuing operations.

The Artemis crew tossing around their iPhones, floating in zero gravity 😂

One of the critical moments will be the ignition of the engines for the trans-lunar injection (TLI) maneuver. The Artemis II astronauts will thus be taken outside Earth’s orbit toward the natural satellite for the first time since the end of the Apollo program in 1972. The ignition of Orion's engines will last just over 6 minutes, and attention during those moments will be at its peak.

The crew have successfully flown and controlled the Orion spacecraft

Interestingly, in recent hours, the Artemis II crew successfully completed proximity tests with the upper stage. In fact, after the ICPS separation from Orion, the capsule performed a rotation to position the upper hatch in alignment with the upper area of the stage.

The second image shows the Cubesats inside the stage adapter.

This was a test to simulate the approach to a lunar lander’s hatch, as will occur during Artemis III (in low Earth orbit, in 2027) and then starting from Artemis IV (early 2028) for the missions that will descend to the lunar surface. According to reports from discussions between the crew and mission control, operations in the real environment appear better than those in the simulator regarding engine thrust, with controls described as "very responsive" and "commands being very precise," adding that "the thrusters are much smoother than those of the Soyuz and Dragon; the spacecraft is very gentle."