Orion's lunar round trip spanned a total of 25 and a half days, traveling about 1.4 million miles.
NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule take flight for the first time from Kennedy Space Center on the historic Artemis I mission on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022.Space is important to us and that’s why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here.
Less than 20 minutes into flight, the Orion capsule secured atop the rocket began deploying its solar arrays, kicking off an uncrewed 26-day mission to lunar orbit. With help from the United Launch Alliance-built upper stage, Orion fired off toward the moon – known as the translunar injection – just after 3:30 a.m. EST., NASA's Artemis launch director, told a packed Launch Control Center after liftoff.
The countdown leading to the Space Coast's 50th launch of the year, however, was a story in and of itself.Managers tried in August and September, but had to stand down due to hardware issues at pad 39B – namely the loading of liquid hydrogen into the rocket's massive, Boeing-built core stage.
NASA opted to do something rarely seen in spaceflight: send technicians into a blast danger area, or BDA, to fix hardware just feet away from a pressurized vehicle capable of holding 733,000 gallons of energy-dense propellants. The three technicians, called the"red team," moved in and tightened nuts around a hydrogen fill line and departed the pad without issue.
Cairns, also a cryogenic technician, had been a red team crew member for 37 years before he was called into action for the first time Wednesday to help fix the leak. Both were overseen by Garrett, their safety engineer, and all are employed by ERC, part of Jacobs' Test and Operations Support Contract at KSC.
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