With the Artemis 2 launch just hours away, the four-person crew—including Canada’s Jeremy Hansen—is preparing for a jam packed first 24 hours. Once the SLS rocket clears the tower, the mission moves into a “shakedown” phase to ensure the Orion spacecraft is ready for deep space.
Listed here are key events and in the video Jeremy Hansen walks you through some of them.
0–2 Hours: Reaching Orbit and Systems Check
- The Ascent: After eight minutes of flight, Orion reaches a highly elliptical “insertion orbit.”
- Life Support: As soon as they reach zero-G, Jeremy Hansen and Christina Koch will unstrap to begin testing the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS). They’ll verify everything from the water dispenser and toilet to the firefighting masks.
- Solar Power: About 18 minutes after launch, Orion’s solar arrays deploy to begin powering the ship.
2–6 Hours: The First Engine Burns
- Perigee Raise: Roughly 50 minutes after launch, the ICPS (the rocket’s upper stage) fires its engine to raise the spacecraft’s altitude, preventing it from falling back into the atmosphere.
- Proximity Operations: In a critical test of manual flight, Pilot Victor Glover will take control of Orion to perform “prox ops”—maneuvering the capsule around the spent ICPS stage to test how the ship handles in close quarters.
6–24 Hours: High Earth Orbit (HEO)
- Configuration Change: The crew will transition the cabin from “launch mode” to “living mode,” stowing seats and setting up exercise equipment.
- The First Sleep Cycle: Interestingly, the crew’s first rest period is split in two. They will sleep for four hours, wake up to monitor a perigee raise burn by the European Service Module, and then return to sleep for another four hours.
- The TLI Decision: By the end of the first day, NASA will review all systems data. If Orion is healthy, they will give the “Go” for the Translunar Injection (TLI) burn, the definitive maneuver that kicks the crew out of Earth’s orbit and sends them toward the Moon.
The 24-hour “high Earth orbit” phase is intentional. Unlike Apollo, which headed for the Moon almost immediately, Artemis II stays close to Earth for one full day to ensure every life-support system is perfect before committing to a 400,000 km journey.