SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
After a thunderous launch from Florida's Kennedy Space Center yesterday, astronauts are now on a mission to the moon. It's the first lunar mission for a human crew in more than 50 years. So what exactly will they be doing on this nearly 10-day flight? Central Florida Public Media's Brendan Byrne reports.
BRENDAN BYRNE, BYLINE: It was a flawless takeoff from Launch Complex 39B, the SLS rocket's engines roaring to life and sending the Orion capsule and its crew of four into space.
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REID WISEMAN: The views - we've got two moonrises that we've had so far. And the views of planet Earth - we've circled it completely, and we forgot how beautiful it is to look down on Earth.
BYRNE: But Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew of fellow NASA astronauts, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, had little time to take in those views. They had work to do.
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WISEMAN: All right, Amy, welcome on board the Integrity spacecraft. We got right now, myself and Christina are in Seats 1 and 2, getting ready for rendezvous and prox ops demonstration. Victor is just finishing up getting out of his suits and getting suit dry and going, and Jeremy is hard at work in cabin configuration.
BYRNE: Just hours after liftoff, Glover, the mission's pilot, took manual control of the Orion spacecraft, flying it around a piece of the SLS rocket that was no longer needed. NASA wanted to know how the spacecraft handled in comparison to the simulators here on the ground.
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VICTOR GLOVER: Much quieter. We've had a little rumble...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Checking.
GLOVER: ...Like we're driving on a rocky road, but much quieter than in the sim.
BYRNE: This will be important for future moon missions, ones that will need to dock with a lunar lander while in space. This test, according to Glover, was a success.
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GLOVER: Great flying with you, Houston. Nice vehicle.
BYRNE: It's just one of many tests for Orion, carrying its first human occupants. The astronauts are testing critical life-support hardware, like the toilet, which was briefly out of order, and oxygen and water systems. The journey to the moon and back will take them to the far side of the moon. From that vantage point, they can take brand-new observations of the lunar surface.
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BARBARA COHEN: They'll be able to see places on the moon that actually no human eyes have ever seen before.
BYRNE: Barbara Cohen is a member of the Artemis II science team. She says geologists on Earth train the crew to spot unique features on the lunar surface and snap photos of them for further study. This follows in a time-honored tradition. Apollo astronauts who visited the moon more than a half century ago were also trained by geologists. These new observations will help scientists better understand the moon and possibly help plan for a future human landing. And they'll get another unique observational opportunity - the chance to see an eclipse while in deep space.
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LORI GLAZE: During the eclipse, the moon will be blocking the sun. They will be able to see the sun's corona.
BYRNE: NASA's Lori Glaze said the crew received training here on the ground to best capture images of this view and share them with us back on Earth.
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GLAZE: They're prepared to make those solar observations. It'll be a pretty cool and unique opportunity.
BYRNE: The crew will also conduct research on themselves. Cohen says, since the astronauts will be in deep space for most of the mission, scientists are taking this opportunity to study the impact a trip like this will have on the human body, with some sensors that they wear and others they have positioned around the capsule to measure...
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COHEN: The radiation environment - you know, the crew cabin environment, temperature, humidity, things like that. Not only important for the crew's health, but also for the health and wellbeing of any instruments that we put into that space or any samples that we're eventually going to return.
BYRNE: Artemis II has a packed schedule as it circles the moon, ending the mission with a plan to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the West Coast of the U.S. And while these engineering and science tests are critical for future Artemis astronauts, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman hopes the mission will inspire people outside of the agency.
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JARED ISAACMAN: I think after Artemis II, you're going to have more kids that are going to dress up as astronauts for Halloween. We want to inspire and create interest in the next generation to grow up and contribute to this endeavor.
BYRNE: And Artemis II is working to do just that. NASA is streaming the mission, so anyone can join the crew in their capsule on this new chapter of lunar exploration. For NPR News, I'm Brendan Byrne in Orlando. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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