“There were no problems with the vehicle itself,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Wednesday at a news conference after the launch. “Communication with employees has been restored. We are fixing this issue properly.”
Workers also reported a light coming on when they checked their toilet on Wednesday.
Called the Universal Waste Management System, the toilet in the Orion capsule is designed to drain urine and store waste until the crew returns. It is separated by a door placed at the bottom of the capsule to allow some privacy. A similar toilet has been tested on the International Space Station.
Mission managers worked with astronauts to diagnose the problem overnight, and NASA confirmed early Thursday that crews were able to restore the space toilet to normal operation.
If it wasn’t fixed, the backup plan was for the crew to use what NASA calls “collapsible urinals” to collect urine in bags. The toilet would still be used for sewage collection.
The third brief case may sound more relatable to many people on earth: While the astronauts were setting up their computers, they requested technical support from Mission Control. The culprit? Microsoft Outlook.
“I also see that I have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither of them are working,” Wiseman, the mission commander, broadcast.
Mission controllers were eventually able to gain remote access to the computers and restore Outlook online to the astronauts.
With those early problems quickly resolved and now behind them, a major milestone awaits the Artemis II astronauts on the second day of their mission.
After a short nap, the astronauts received their wake-up call Thursday at 2:35 pm ET. They were awakened by the song “Green Light” by John Legend and messages from NASA employees and members of the teams that helped go to space. Glover thanked them with kind words.
Less than two hours later, mission managers in Houston met to decide whether to go through with the powerful engine burn that would put the Orion capsule on its way around the moon.
The team voted “go.”
The maneuver, known as a translunar injection burn, is scheduled for 7:49 pm ET and will last less than six minutes. Orion’s main engine will fire, increasing the capsule’s speed enough to eject it from Earth orbit.
Engine burnout is important – and the last of these is significant during mission – because the trajectory of the Artemis II mission in space depends on the gravitational pull of the Earth and the moon. Thus, if a translunar injection burn occurs, the astronauts will be on an irreversible journey around the moon.
“Flight controllers will closely monitor engine performance, orientation, and navigation data throughout the program to ensure that Orion remains properly aligned with the mission’s mission,” NASA officials said in a blog post.
If successful, the Artemis II astronauts will be the first crew to go to the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
