Artemis II Day-One Update: Liftoff, Orion Checkout, and the Upcoming Trans-Lunar Injection Burn

The episode recaps the Artemis II launch from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B at 6:35 PM Eastern on April 1, describing SLS ignition with twin solid rocket boosters and four RS-25 engines producing 8.8 million pounds of thrust, Orion’s separation from the core stage, and successful deployment of four solar arrays. It explains Orion’s first major burn to raise apogee and outlines the crew’s early tasks, including a Proximity Operations Demonstration in which Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen manually flew Orion near the spent upper stage to practice future docking skills. The crew also reported a blinking fault light on the space toilet as Mission Control troubleshoots. The update previews the mission’s most  ...