Finally, someone’s vacation snaps you actually want to see. The photos above come courtesy of the four astronauts on NASA’s Artemis II rocket aboard the Orion capsule, who are currently on their way to becoming the first humans to reach the moon since 1972. After Wednesday’s launch and a 5-minute, 50-second engine burn on Thursday, they’ve left Earth’s orbit and are on their test flight path.
Monumental journey
The Artemis II flight is historic for many reasons: The crew will travel the farthest distance humans have ever traveled in space, and…it’s the first time someone has had a problem running Microsoft Outlook in space. We also cannot overlook the fact that it’s the first-ever launch with a toilet aboard the spacecraft:
During the Apollo missions, astronauts had to strap special bags and tubes to themselves every time they had to go. The far-from-perfect process led to a rogue floating turd during the Apollo 10 mission in 1969.After six years and nearly $23 million in development…Artemis II’s commode was briefly offline for the first few hours of the mission.But the extremely loud space toilet was fully operational by the time the astronauts went to sleep the first night, according to NASA.
Looking ahead…while this flight will complete a moon fly-by, scientists are hoping the mission will lead to a moon landing in 2028.—MM