Back to the Blue World
Dec. 11th, 2022 06:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerArtemis I had launched at an hour not compatible with going to work the next day for me, but with advance forecasts of the splashdown time in hand I was able to tune into the official live stream while the capsule that was all that was left of the rocket launched into the night weeks before was dipping in and out of “re-entry blackout.” It turned out that when it wasn’t blacked out it was able to send video back, and I was able to see the Earth shifting from a near-orbital viewpoint to a merely high-altitude perspective and then see the parachutes opening. The splashdown was well within range of external cameras, although I’d noticed an earlier shot of the deck of the recovery ship where the horizon was bobbing back and forth quite a bit.
It was something just to contemplate Artemis I being out in space, and tempting to suppose the moon feeling a bit closer. At the same time, I’m conscious that Artemis II, which is supposed to have people on board for a different trajectory around the moon, will be a matter of finishing another rocket, but actually landing on the moon will take a lander and a launch vehicle that haven’t been built yet. With the current plans for SpaceX to supply both, I can imagine their completion will encourage the calls to retire the Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule, honourably or otherwise, even before getting to the plans for somebody rich and their invited artists to ride the basis for that lander around the moon.
It was something just to contemplate Artemis I being out in space, and tempting to suppose the moon feeling a bit closer. At the same time, I’m conscious that Artemis II, which is supposed to have people on board for a different trajectory around the moon, will be a matter of finishing another rocket, but actually landing on the moon will take a lander and a launch vehicle that haven’t been built yet. With the current plans for SpaceX to supply both, I can imagine their completion will encourage the calls to retire the Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule, honourably or otherwise, even before getting to the plans for somebody rich and their invited artists to ride the basis for that lander around the moon.