‘Han Solo wants to be me’: Artemis II’s Victor Glover talks about Orion’s flight

Even if you’re 250,000 miles from Earth, sleep is important. But despite all the life-sustaining equipment aboard the Orion spacecraft, the capsule had no sleeping quarters, making for a truly bizarre sleeping arrangement for the four-man Artemis II crew.

“I was sleeping right next to the air conditioner vent, and then I woke up and all I saw was this big chunk of metal,” Glover told CNET during a video call. “And I was like, ‘Oh, I’m in space. I’m weightless.'”

For astronauts, sleep wasn’t just a way to recharge. It also kept them grounded during their historical journey. “The thing that really resonated with me was that we’re all human beings too. It’s like camping, and this is a really important part of this journey,” Grover said.

Artemis II This was the first manned flight to the moon in more than 50 years. Subsequently Artemis Ithe first unmanned mission in 2022 for NASA’s new Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. The goal of Artemis II was to allow the crew to test procedures needed for future lunar missions involving the spacecraft, life support systems, SLS rocket, and, ultimately, a lunar landing. build a base there.

Grover, Orion’s pilot, made up the Artemis II crew, along with commander Reed Wiseman and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. This mission made a lot of history. It was the first time a woman, a black man and a Canadian traveled to the moon. The four Artemis II astronauts flew 252,756 miles from Earth, farther than any other human and surpassing the record set by the Apollo 13 mission in 1970.

This wasn’t Grover’s first spaceflight. In 2020, he piloted the Crew Dragon capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket for launch to and from the International Space Station. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 missionwill spend more than 167 days in space. However, Artemis II gave Grover the first opportunity to pilot Orion, a new vehicle designed for Artemis missions. For much of the nearly 10-day journey, Orion remained on autopilot. However, Grover had several opportunities to manually control the spacecraft to test its operation.

“I was very happy and happy,” Glover said of Orion’s flight. “It was a test pilot’s dream to fly a new spacecraft manually for the first time.”

Even after spending time training to fly in a simulator back on Earth, he was surprised by the responsiveness of Orion’s hand controllers and the sharpness of the camera used to maneuver the craft around the intermediate cryogenic propulsion stage that holds the fuel needed for the upper stage for launch. The view from the cameras and monitors was “like looking out the window,” he said.

When I asked Grover if he felt like Han Solo while piloting the Orion, he replied, “Han Solo wants to be me when he grows up!” Throughout my interview, Grover was polite, passionate, and funny.

“I get to do cooler things than Han Solo. I mean, it’s just a fact. it’s truethat’s better. ”

Although no moon landings were planned for this trip, the Orion crew traveled nearly 4,000 miles beyond the moon, allowing them to see parts of the moon they had never seen before. For comparison, the Apollo missions flew and landed about 110 miles above the moon, but the amount of the moon that could actually be seen was limited.

The images of the moon that Grover and his crew captured were astonishing. Photos like Earthset remind us how beautiful our planet is and our place within the solar system. The astronauts also witnessed a total solar eclipse as they circled the far side of the moon. But Glover said none of the photos they took compare to what they saw.

“You can see the curvature of the moon. Depth is just one aspect you can’t see in a photo. But here’s another problem: The photo lacks scale.”

According to NASA, Orion was moving at high speed during its lunar pass, at 60,863 miles per hour relative to Earth, but only 3,139 miles per hour relative to the Moon. This speed means that the shadow across the surface is constantly changing into different shapes. Grover was particularly fascinated by the lunar terminator, where the light and dark sides of the moon meet. The terminator is not fixed and depends on the position of the moon relative to the sun. As Orion moves, it changes into different shapes, like an alphabet.

“As many of you know, I fell in love with Terminators after seeing a real Terminator up close. I saw the Terminator change from the letter C to the letter D. That meant there was a period when the moon was half bright and half dark. It was pointing straight at me.”

Artemis II’s lunar flight was the highlight of the trip for many of us on Earth. One of the reasons was that we could watch it in real time via satellite. Streaming services such as Netflix. Almost the entire mission was streamed live on NASA’s website and YouTube channel, making it feel like a reality show. As you watch the crew eat, exercise, and take photos of the moon, one moment you take a photo of the moon. Then there’s a random jar of Nutella floating by one of the cameras. I asked Grover if he felt like he was on a TV show while aboard Orion.

“It didn’t feel like a reality show to me,” Glover said. “That’s what you see when you watch science, when you hear us explain the moon, when you see us fly a spacecraft with our hands, when it’s time to go to bed, when it’s time to bathe, when it’s time to brush your teeth. The mission was all of those things.”

Grover was overjoyed to hear how I and others felt connected to the crew during our missions. He said it was important for NASA to let the world know everything it would take to send four people 250,000 miles away.

“I think probably one of the really special things about this mission was just how much we got to see,” Glover said with a smile. “I’m so glad you felt like you were there.”