Artemis

Wednesday, April 2, 2026

Yesterday the Artemis rocket launched, and human beings headed back to the moon for the first time in 54 years. The last time we went to the moon was Dec 11, 1972. I was fourteen years old. Today’s flight is a big deal.

We won’t be landing on the moon on this trip, but we will be going further from earth than anyone has gone before. The trip will take ten days, and the crew includes a woman, a black man, a Canadian and an American man. They did their best to make this a multicultural and multinational event. I think that is good.

Yesterday the Artemis’s main engines along with two solid rocket boosters got the crew into orbit and then the boosters dropped off. The main engines boosted the capsule into a low earth orbit and then it dropped off. The Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), basically the second stage, then boosted the capsule into a high earth orbit and then it dropped off. This burn is called the perigee burn because it is done at the perigee of the low earth orbit. The perigee is the lowest point of the orbit. Once the ship reaches the apogee of the orbit (the highest point) an apogee burn is made to keep it there. They will then wait a day to check everything out. This afternoon the European service module will do a translunar injection (TLI) burn to send the crew towards the moon.

No more burns are needed to get to the moon and back. The Orion will now “fall” to the moon. This will take about four days. It will then circle around the far side of the moon passing a little over 4,000 miles above the moon’s surface. The moon’s gravity will have increased the velocity of the Orion so much that it can’t stay in orbit around the moon but will now fling back towards earth. On the way back to earth some burns will be made to adjust the course of the Orion.

The Orion capsule will then separate from the service module and splash down about fifty miles from my house. I missed it when the last SpaceX capsule with the sick astronaut from the space station landed here but you can bet I’ll be watching for the Orion. Splash Down is expected to be next Tuesday, April 10. No one is mentioning a time yet but I’ll be watching.

--------------------trivia--------------------

The astonaught will be an inch or two taller 

when they get home than they were when they left. 

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