ADRIANA DIAZ:
00:00:00
We're excited. We could be just days away from America's first crewed mission to the moon in more than half a century. The Artemis II crew arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Friday. As early as this Wednesday evening, NASA intends to launch four astronauts, three Americans and one Canadian. Mark Strassmann is standing by with more on the mission the whole world will be watching. Mark, good morning. Hey, Adriana, good morning to you. Well, the big moment is almost here, big moment for this crew, for NASA, and for this new era in space voyaging. This will be the first time in decades that anyone has traveled beyond low Earth orbit. And you could hear the excitement in the voice of Mission Commander Reed Wiseman when he landed here. Hey, let's go to the moon! [APPLAUSE]
MARK STRASSMANN:
00:00:48
Here they are. The crew of Artemis II, Earth's first lunar travelers in more than a half century. They could launch as soon as next Wednesday, April 1, when the launch window opens. What should be the expectations for this mission? April 1 is not a guarantee. We got to go feel this whole thing out. The rocket is ready. We are ready. NASA is ready.
MARK STRASSMANN:
00:01:09
The crew of four will lift off from Florida. In all, their round trip will cover 1/2 million miles. Over nine days, their Orion capsule will take them to the moon, loop around its far side, then return to Earth for a splashdown off the coast of San Diego. Artemis II's goal, prepare NASA for an eventual moon landing scheduled for early 2028 with the crew of Artemis IV. Charlie Blackwell-Thompson is the launch director. She has final say when Artemis II will fly. How many different things have to be going perfectly for you as the launch director to say, we're a go? We have 500 launch commit criteria, which are our rules that we go or no-go by.
MARK STRASSMANN:
00:01:51
Blackwell-Thompson then put it another way, more simply. We're not going to fly till we're ready. And the hardware will tell you when it's ready. Launch in 10 seconds if you're syncing your watches.
MARK STRASSMANN:
00:02:02
NASA selected this crew nearly three years ago. They've trained for this mission ever since. This critical test flight will shape NASA's future lunar timetable. It's also the first time people have ever flown on the SLS rocket or in the Orion capsule on top. The ultimate learning is going to be the mission. And so that's one of the things I'm looking forward to, is coming back and talking about how much we've learned as we fly. So as we've been saying, the launch window opens on April 1. It closes on April 6. If for some reason they can't fly during those six days, then the new launch window would slide to early May. Kelly. 500 launch criteria, that was something I took away from that. OK, a lot to make sure that they go.
ADRIANA DIAZ:
00:02:49
Strong aviator game from the astronauts.
KELLY:
00:02:52
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
KELLY:
00:02:52
And that music and everything, this is going to be a good week. All right, Mark Strassmann at the Kennedy Space Center, thank you.
