Meet NASA’s Artemis II Moon Mission Masterminds

As 4 astronauts enterprise across the Moon on NASA’s Artemis II take a look at flight in 2026, many individuals will assist the journey from right here on Earth. Teams directing operations from the bottom embrace the mission administration group, launch management group, flight management group, and the touchdown and restoration group, every with extra assist personnel who’re specialists in each particular person system and subsystem. The groups have managed each facet of the take a look at flight and guarantee NASA is ready to ship people past our ambiance and into a brand new Golden Age of innovation and exploration.

Mission administration group

Reviews of mission standing and danger assessments are performed by the mission administration group, a gaggle of 15 core members and extra advisors. Amit Kshatriya, NASA’s deputy affiliate administrator, Moon to Mars Program, will function the mission administration group chair for the take a look at flight.

Two days previous to launch, the mission administration group will assemble to assessment mission dangers and handle any lingering preflight issues. With greater than 20 years of human spaceflight expertise, Kshatriya will conduct polls at key choice factors, offering course for the related operations group. If circumstances through the flight transcend established choice standards or flight guidelines outlined forward of the mission, the group will assess the scenario based mostly on the knowledge accessible and resolve find out how to reply. 

Matt Ramsey, serving because the Artemis II mission supervisor, will oversee all parts of mission preparedness previous to the mission administration group meeting two days earlier than launch and function deputy mission administration group chair all through the mission. With greater than 20 years of expertise at NASA, Ramsey managed the SLS (Space Launch System) Engineering Support Center for Artemis I. 

Launch management group

The launch management group coordinates launch operations from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Charlie Blackwell-Thompson serves because the company’s Artemis launch director, answerable for integrating and coordinating launch operations for the SLS, Orion, and Exploration Ground Systems Programs, together with growing and implementing plans for countdown, troubleshooting, and timing.

Two days earlier than liftoff, when the countdown for launch begins, Blackwell-Thompson’s group will start preparations for launch from their console positions in Firing Room 1 in Kennedy’s Launch Control Center. On the day of launch, Blackwell-Thompson and her group will handle countdown progress, propellent loading, and launch commit standards. The standards embrace requirements for programs concerned in launch, and the group will monitor the rocket till it lifts off from the launchpad.

Flight management group

From stable rocket booster ignition till the crew is safely extracted from the Orion capsule following splashdown within the Pacific Ocean on the finish of their mission, the flight management group oversees operations from the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Multiple flight administrators will take turns main the group all through the 10-day mission to assist operations across the clock. Jeff Radigan, bringing greater than 20 years of International Space Station expertise to Artemis II, will function lead flight director for the mission. The work for this position begins properly prematurely of the mission with constructing mission timelines; growing flight guidelines and procedures; main the flight management group via simulations that put together them for the flight take a look at; after which serving to them perform the plan.

On launch day, the ascent flight management group shall be led by Judd Frieling, an Artemis I flight director who additionally supported greater than 20 shuttle missions as a flight controller. Frieling is answerable for overseeing the crew’s ascent to area, together with efficiency of SLS core stage engines, stable rocket boosters, and propulsion programs from the second of launch till the separation of Orion from the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage. As Orion is propelled towards the Moon, steerage of operations will go to the following flight director.

At the other finish of the mission, Rick Henfling will take the lead for Orion’s return to Earth and splashdown. Orion will reenter Earth’s ambiance at roughly 25,000 mph to about 20 mph for a parachute-assisted splashdown. Drawing from a background supporting area shuttle ascent, entry, and abort operations and 10 years as an area station flight director, Henfling and the group will monitor climate forecasts for touchdown, watch over Orion’s programs via the dynamic entry section, and to make sure the spacecraft is safely shutdown earlier than handing over operations to the restoration group.

At any level through the mission, a single voice will converse to the crew in area on behalf of all members of the flight management group: the capsule communicator, or CapCom. The CapCom ensures the crew in area receives clear and concise communication from the groups supporting them on the bottom. NASA astronaut Stan Love will function the lead CapCom for Artemis II. Love flew aboard STS-122 mission and has acted as CapCom for greater than a dozen area station expeditions. He can also be a part of the astronaut workplace’s Rapid Prototyping Lab, which performed a key position in growth of Orion’s shows and controls.

Landing, restoration group

Retrieval of the crew and Orion crew module shall be within the fingers of the touchdown and restoration group, led by Lili Villarreal. The group will depart San Diego on a Department of Defense ship, and head to the neighborhood of the touchdown web site a number of days earlier than splashdown for closing preparations alongside the U.S. Navy and DOD.

The restoration group is made up of personnel working from the ship, land, and air to get well each astronauts and the capsule. Decision-making authority through the restoration section of mission operations belongs to Villarreal, who served as deputy circulate director for Artemis I and labored within the operations division for the area station.

The success of Artemis II will pave the best way for the following section of the company’s marketing campaign, touchdown on the lunar South Pole area on Artemis III. These groups, together with the 4 crew members and numerous NASA engineers, scientists, and personnel, are driving humanity’s exploration on the Moon, Mars, and past.