As an astronaut, you have to prepare for all kinds of eventualities, whether it’s staying in orbit for nine months longer than expected due to problems with your spacecraft, or cutting short a space station mission due to a health emergency.
And if you’re one of the four Artemis II astronauts, you also need a great deal of composure as you wait patiently for NASA to ready your rocket for what will be the most significant crewed space flight in half a century.
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen had been expected to begin their epic 10-day voyage around the moon in early February, but a technical issue with the rocket that surfaced during a prelaunch test just days before launch forced NASA to shift the target date to March.
But another issue, discovered in February, pushed the launch window to April.
About two weeks before a space mission, whether it’s to the International Space Station or a low-Earth orbital flight, the crew enters quarantine to reduce the chances of any of them getting ill prior to liftoff.
The Artemis II crew were in quarantine earlier this year in expectation of a February or March launch, but since the mission has now been pushed to next month, they’ve been allowed to leave their protective isolation and live normally again.
While NASA hasn’t made any official announcement on their whereabouts, it’s highly likely that Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen have returned to activities such as regular training duties, mission prep, and normal routines with family and colleagues at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
The crew will remain in close contact with NASA flight control and engineering teams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center launch site and the Johnson Space Center, tracking the ongoing repairs of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft as engineers work toward a new liftoff opportunity.
Once NASA sets a specific target launch date in April, the crew will return to quarantine two weeks beforehand to protect their health before heading to Florida for final launch preparations.
Life as an astronaut means expecting the unexpected and dealing with any obstacles in a composed, professional manner. The important thing is to stay calm, retain faith in the process, and focus on the mission — no matter how many times the schedule changes.
At some point, the Artemis II astronauts will be heading toward the moon, and it’s that knowledge that keeps them motivated and ready to face every challenge that comes their way.