NASA‘s Artemis II astronauts will get a swift reminder on their first flight day that moon missions don’t adhere to sleep demands.
The historic human spaceflight, NASA’s first beyond low-Earth orbit in over 50 years, launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday evening at 6:35 p.m. ET. But even after that bone-rattling liftoff, the crew — Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen — won’t have downtime.
First, the rocket’s upper stage places the Orion spacecraft into a high-Earth orbit that takes about 24 hours to complete. As it circles the planet, the crew will test life support, communications, and navigation systems while they’re still relatively close to home.
Then comes an awkwardly timed maneuver: the so-called “perigee raise” burn. Mission managers say this unassuming moment sits in the same high‑risk category as liftoff itself. The problem is when that engine burn must happen — right in the middle of the astronauts’ sleep.
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