All language subtitles for Nova S53E06 Return to the Moon 1080p PBS WEB-DL AAC 2 0 H264-ARCHIVED

♪ ♪

GENE CERNAN:
We leave as we came,

and, God willing,
as we shall return.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
After more than 50 years,

humanity has finally returned
to the moon.

♪ ♪

To get there, NASA needed
a new rocket that packs a punch.

BILL NELSON:
8.8 million pounds of thrust

at liftoff.

REID WISEMAN:
I call it the arrogance
of humanity.

The fact that we think we can
launch machinery like this,

it just leaves you
with a sense of awe.

NARRATOR:
How did they build it?

JOHN BLEVINS:
This is like no other kind
of atmospheric machine.

We design for every iteration

that could occur
between liftoff and orbit.

MAN:
Copy, burning.

NARRATOR:
What were they up against?

MAN:
Copy.

ANDREA LEINFELDER:
China's space program
is more advanced

than I think a lot of people
realize.

ERIC BERGER:
When you see something
that anomalous

on a critical system
like the heat shield,

where there's no backup,

that really raises
your concerns.

(explosion echoes)

MAGGIE ADERIN:
They've mitigated the risk
as much as possible,

but there still could be

a catastrophic failure
and loss of life.

NARRATOR:
The inside story of Artemis II,

from design to splashdown.

"Return to the Moon,"
right now, on "NOVA. "

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
April 1, 2026.

It's launch day
for the crew of Artemis II.

♪ ♪

Commander Reid Wiseman,

pilot Victor Glover...

...two mission specialists,
Christina Koch

and Canadian Jeremy Hansen.

They're about to fly
on the most powerful rocket

NASA has ever built,
the Space Launch System.

♪ ♪

WISEMAN:
As you get out to the pad,
you can look all the way up

and see the top of the rocket.

It's full of fuel,
so it'll be venting,

it'll be cold,
it'll be alive.

♪ ♪

And we are just
teeny, tiny specks

amongst this 280-foot-tall
rocket in front of us.

We'll get in an elevator,

we'll ride that elevator
up to the 274 level.

And we walk down the gantry
to the White Room.

Put on our helmet,
put on our gloves,

make sure we look good
from head to toe,

and then one at a time,
we'll go into the Orion

and start getting strapped in.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Artemis II is the first crewed
mission to the moon

in over 50 years.

The astronauts will travel
farther from Earth

than any humans
have traveled before,

paving the way
for future missions

to land on the lunar surface.

♪ ♪

ADERIN:
When a rocket launch is
going ahead,

it is almost
like poetry in motion.

Everything has to be
in perfect alignment

before they will give
the go-ahead for a launch.

♪ ♪

BERGER:
You've got four human beings

sitting on top
of a massive bomb.

If the detonation is controlled
properly,

then the rocket goes up
and they go to space.

But if something goes wrong,
that rocket blows up.

♪ ♪

JEFF SPAULDING (on radio):
OTC.

WOMAN (on radio):
TC is go.

NARRATOR:
It's taken decades to get here.

The risks are enormous.

SPAULDING (on radio):
MCO.

MAN (on radio):
T.O. is go.

NARRATOR:
But now it's finally time.

Time for humans to go back
to the moon.

WISEMAN (on radio):
Artemis II crew
is go for launch.

CHARLIE BLACKWELL-THOMPSON
(on radio): I copy that.

Good luck.

Godspeed, Artemis II.

Let's go.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Three years before
the launch of Artemis II,

NASA launches Artemis I.

A test flight
to the moon and back

without astronauts on board.

♪ ♪

BLACKWELL-THOMPSON:
There are things that we've done
many times in sims,

and we've done them
many times in the lab,

but in a tanked configuration
at the pad,

it was the first time.

It is incredibly quiet
in the room.

Everybody is focused
on their system,

they're focused on the data.

I mean, there's not a sound.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
It's the first flight

of the Space Launch System--

SLS--

the rocket specially built
for the Artemis program.

Five million pounds of fuel

has to ignite on cue

to lift the rocket into space.

BERGER: Rockets are insanely
complex vehicles

where everything has to
go right for it to succeed,

and if a single important thing
goes wrong,

the rocket blows up.

I mean, it is the ultimate
kind of pass-fail test.

DERROL NAIL:
And here we go.

MAN (on radio):
Ten...

BLACKWELL-THOMPSON:
I got a bit of a...

The hair on my arms stood up
just a little bit

as those final six seconds
ticked off the countdown clock.

NAIL:
Six, five, four,

stage engine start.

BLACKWELL-THOMPSON:
And then the call.

"Booster, ignition,
and liftoff."

NAIL:
Three, two, one...

BLACKWELL-THOMPSON:
"Liftoff of Artemis I."

(engines roaring)

♪ ♪

It was...

It was breathtaking.

LEAH CHESHIER:
Good control on the roll

from teams on mission control,
Houston.

All good calls so far,

now 30 seconds
into the flight of Artemis I.

NARRATOR:
The SLS is a multi-stage rocket.

Once each stage, or section
of the rocket, has done its job,

it separates.

The spacecraft becomes lighter,

better able to accelerate
into space.

♪ ♪

Within two hours,
all that remains is Orion,

the crew and service modules

heading away from Earth.

♪ ♪

It takes five days
to reach the moon,

where Orion settles
into lunar orbit,

allowing mission controllers

to test its flight systems
in deep space.

♪ ♪

MIKE SARAFIN:
For me, one of the highlights

was seeing the Earth

pass behind the moon

and disappear,

and then come out
the other side.

♪ ♪

Eight billion people

disappeared behind
the only other place

that humanity had ever been.

I, I've had a different
perspective

every time I've looked
at the moon since then.

♪ ♪

ROB NAVIAS:
NASA's newest moon explorer

is barreling its way back home

after circumnavigating the moon
and beyond.

NARRATOR:
When Artemis I returns
from the moon,

Orion is traveling
7,500 miles per hour faster

than a spacecraft coming back
from low-Earth orbit.

As it hits the upper atmosphere,

friction generates intense heat
and super-hot plasma

visible through
the capsule window.

(whistling)

The only protection
from this inferno

is a heat shield
an inch and a half thick.

SARAFIN:
Demonstrating the heat shield
at lunar re-entry velocities

was our number-one priority,

because temperatures outside
got half as hot as the sun,

approaching
5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

(popping)

When you come back
from the moon,

you're coming back at Mach 32,

or 24,500 miles an hour.

In fact, we came back
at 24,581 miles an hour.

We were 81 miles an hour
over the speed limit.

♪ ♪

NAVIAS:
And there it is.

5,000 feet.

Three good main chutes
for Orion.

Orion in the perfect orientation
for splashdown.

Just seconds away.

NARRATOR:
Half an hour earlier,

Orion was hurtling towards Earth

at 32 times the speed of sound.

When it hits the water,

it's falling
at less than 20 miles an hour.

The idea for Artemis II

is to go back to the moon,

but this time

with a crew of astronauts
on board.

♪ ♪

They'll do a single wide loop,

flying more than 4,000 miles
beyond the moon--

the farthest any human
has been into space--

before returning to Earth.

ADERIN:
Artemis I was about

testing the hardware,

making sure
that everything would work

going to the moon and back.

Now they're putting people
on board,

and people, of course,
there is a sense of danger,

a sense of trepidation.

It just

amps up the safety factor,
right?

With Artemis I,
a failure will be bad, right?

But it wouldn't
have been catastrophic.

If you lose the human crew
on Artemis II,

that is catastrophic.

That calls into question

the future
of the whole Artemis program.

(applauding)

NARRATOR:
In April 2023,

the Artemis II crew
is announced:

Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover,

Christina Koch,
and Jeremy Hansen.

They'll be the first humans
to leave Earth's orbit

since Apollo 17
in December 1972.

HARRISON SCHMITT (on radio):
Hello, Houston!

BOB PARKER (on radio):
(indistinct) 17, loud and clear.

CERNAN (on radio):
♪ Hippity hoppity,
hippity hoppity ♪

♪ Hippity hopping
over hill and dale ♪

(vocalizing)

TIM PEAKE:
Artemis intrinsically builds

on the legacy of Apollo.

We stand on the shoulders
of giants,

and we've learnt so much in
human exploration,

but, of course, returning
to the moon,

when we haven't done that
for over 50 years,

we are looking back to Apollo.

We're, we're making
those comparisons.

CERNAN (on radio):
By golly, this time goes fast!

BERGER:
Apollo was clearly
a program designed

to demonstrate U.S. superiority
in technology

compared to the Soviet Union.

And it was successful in that.

And then, once it completed
that task,

they shut it down,
because it cost a lot of money

and every time they launched,

there was a ten or 15 percent
chance

that the crew would not
come back safely.

NARRATOR:
In only three-and-a-half years,

the Apollo program completed
a total of six lunar landings

at a cost equivalent
to $280 billion today.

CERNAN (on radio):
We leave as we came,

and, God willing,
as we shall return.

With peace and in hope

for all mankind.

BERGER:
If you look at NASA's budget,

in the 1960s, at its peak,

it was drawing down five percent
of the federal budget.

NASA's budget today is 0.5%.

So, so ten times less,

or one-tenth of what it was
back in the 1960s.

And NASA is sort of building
the Artemis program

within that budget.

♪ ♪

(Debussy's
"Clair de Lune" playing)

NARRATOR:
Despite having much less money,

the long-term ambition
for Artemis

far exceeds that of Apollo.

Rather than simply landing
astronauts on the moon

for a few days at a time,

the goal is
to establish a moon base

where humans can live and work
long-term.

(piece ends)

During the Apollo program,

each landing
was at a different site,

clustered
around the lunar equator.

With the Artemis program,

the plan for future missions
is to land near the south pole.

This part of the moon
has deep craters

where the sun never shines.

They're thought to contain
huge deposits of water

in the form of ice.

PEAKE:
Where you have ice,
you have the ability

to melt that
and, and provide drinking water,

clearly, for habitation modules,

but also then the potential
to split that water

into hydrogen and oxygen gas,
which can be used for atmosphere

and it can also be used
for potential rocket fuel.

NARRATOR:
But NASA isn't the only one

eyeing this prime real estate.

NELSON:
China has already announced
their intention

to land with their astronauts--

they call them taikonauts--

on the south pole of the moon.

On the schedule that we are,

we will land before the Chinese.

But it is a race.

♪ ♪

BERGER:
I do think
getting back there first

matters a heck of a lot.

China would turn that into a
huge win.

Um, just, just sort of saying

that, "This is the century of
China.

"Look, we've surpassed the
United States.

They can't get back to the moon,
we can."

That's really why we're going.

There's, there's kind of
a geopolitical imperative

at this time.

LEINFELDER:
China's space program
is more advanced

than I think a lot of people
realize,

and it is hitting its deadlines

and meeting a lot of
critical milestones.

NASA's program,

the deadlines keep
getting pushed back,

and so there is concern

that China's accelerating
and NASA's not keeping up.

NARRATOR:
The pressure is on

to speed up the Artemis program

and get its astronauts
to the moon.

♪ ♪

With this goal in mind,

thousands of people at sites
across the U.S. and in Europe

are developing hardware
for Artemis II.

(engines roaring)

♪ ♪

They're building a spacecraft

capable of taking astronauts
to the moon

and returning them safely

for the first time
since the Apollo era.

♪ ♪

The rocket that'll get them
into space

is the SLS,
the Space Launch System.

Its huge core stage contains
the fuel tanks and main engines.

Alongside are
two solid-fuel boosters

to provide extra thrust
at launch.

♪ ♪

Above is the upper stage
and service module,

which power the vehicle
in space.

And finally, the crew module

that carries the astronauts

on their journey to the moon.

♪ ♪

(birds cawing)

♪ ♪

On the outskirts of New Orleans,

the core stage of the SLS

is leaving the hangar
in which it's been assembled.

♪ ♪

Over 200 feet long,

it is the single
largest rocket stage

NASA has ever built.

(exclaiming and talking
in background)

(laughing and talking)

WISEMAN:
When you see SLS,
you think scale.

You do not understand scale

until you go see that thing
in real life.

♪ ♪

I call it the arrogance
of humanity.

The fact that we think we can
assemble machinery like this

and launch it successfully.

It, it just leaves you
with a sense of awe.

NARRATOR:
The core stage contains
two massive aluminum fuel tanks,

which at launch will be filled
with liquid hydrogen and oxygen.

Liquid hydrogen generates
more thrust per pound

than any other rocket fuel,

but its molecules are so light
and loosely packed together,

it needs more storage space
than any other fuel.

That's why the core stage
is so large.

ADERIN: Liquid hydrogen
is the rocket fuel of choice,

and you can see why.

It packs a punch--

it will get people to the moon.

But it is incredibly
hard to handle.

It needs to be kept
at temperatures of -250 Celsius.

The fuel lines,
the tank itself,

everything has to be kept
at that temperature

or the liquid hydrogen
will start to evaporate,

to expand.

Now, imagine,
if your liquid hydrogen

starts expanding in the tank,

the tank will explode.

And so everything has to be kept

at that low, low temperature,

so that everything stays
in its liquid form.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
60% of space shuttle launches

had to be postponed,

often due to problems
with hydrogen fueling.

The worry is Artemis will
suffer the same complications.

(engines roaring)

ANNOUNCER:
Liftoff of the 25th
space shuttle mission,

and it has cleared the tower.

NARRATOR:
NASA knows just how dangerous
rocket fuel can be at launch.

MAN (on radio):
Normal throttles for most
of the flight, 104%.

NARRATOR:
When the fuel tank

of the Challenger
space shuttle ruptured,

liquid hydrogen ignited...

MAN (on radio):
Challenger, go with throttle up.

NARRATOR:
...causing a catastrophic
explosion...

(explosion roars)

♪ ♪

...that took the lives
of seven astronauts.

MAN (on radio):
Obviously a major malfunction.

NARRATOR:
Such disasters have led NASA
to prioritize safety over speed.

♪ ♪

The core stage of the SLS

is transported very slowly
and carefully by barge

900 miles to
Kennedy Space Center,

where it will eventually launch.

On arrival,

it's taken to
the vehicle assembly building,

the largest single-story
building

in the world.

♪ ♪

The head of NASA at the time,
Bill Nelson,

is taking a look for himself.

NELSON:
That core stage

packs a big punch

in those four engines
right there.

By the way, those engines
were the same engines

that were on the space shuttle.

(engines roaring)

But instead of throwing them
away,

we're using them.

NARRATOR:
In order to support the
existing aerospace industry,

Congress mandated NASA to reuse
and update the RS-25 engines

that had previously powered
the space shuttle.

♪ ♪

Congress basically told NASA

that it's going to use
contracts, workforce, systems

from the shuttle,
from previous programs.

(engine roaring)

NARRATOR:
Developed in the 1970s

to deliver maximum thrust
from liquid hydrogen,

RS-25s were known as the Ferrari
of rocket engines.

But reusing them
comes at a cost.

BERGER:
The space shuttle main engines
were great engines,

just brilliant engineering.

But it turns out, if you want a,
an affordable space program,

you don't want to be launching
Ferraris in space,

especially if, like,
you, you drive it one time

and the car goes away.

NARRATOR:
The RS-25s were originally
designed to be reusable.

But on Artemis,

each of them will be flown
only once,

and then discarded.

BERGER:
If you total up all the money
that NASA's spending,

the cost
of the, a single RS-25 engine

is between 100 and 140 million
U.S. dollars.

SpaceX is building
a comparable Raptor engine

for $500,000--
half a million.

If you were starting
from a clean sheet,

this is probably not
what you would've designed,

but given all the political,

um, financial,
and technical realities,

it is the systems we have,

it's the best shot we have
to get to the moon

in the next few years,

and so NASA is making
the best of it.

NARRATOR:
The engines need to generate
enough thrust

to get the rocket into space,

balancing the rocket equation,

which determines the ratio
of fuel to mass to thrust

required
for a successful launch.

BLEVINS:
Physics doesn't read PowerPoint.

It doesn't read our reports.

It doesn't care about any of
that.

So, the rocket equation

is simply a representation

of the physical requirements
to cheat gravity.

NARRATOR:
The "tyranny
of the rocket equation"

is that heavy rockets
require more fuel,

but more fuel
makes rockets heavier,

requiring even more fuel.

A fully loaded SLS weighs
5.7 million pounds.

Five million of that is fuel.

BLEVINS:
90% of the entire mass
that we've got

is chemical energy.

And a good bit
of the rest of that mass

is actually structure
to hold that chemical energy.

We're going from zero velocity
sitting on a launchpad

to 32,000 feet per second.

That's an incredible
energy ride.

So, we continually accelerate.

So, this is like no other kind
of atmospheric machine.

It's not like airplanes.

It's not like cars.

We don't get
to a cruising speed and stop.

And so, we design for every
iteration that could occur

between liftoff and orbit.

NARRATOR:
Since the 1960s,

NASA rockets
have been designed here,

at Marshall Space Flight Center
in Alabama.

FILM NARRATOR:
Out of this center

will come the vehicles

that will carry the United
States into outer space.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Its historic wind tunnel

is still used to test
the aerodynamics of the SLS.

BLEVINS:
There's a joke around
Marshall Space Flight Center

that, "In God we trust,
everybody else bring data."

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
By inserting a scale model
of the SLS

into the wind tunnel

and blowing air over it,

engineers can study the forces
acting on the rocket

as it accelerates into space.

BLEVINS:
This is 25,000 to 50,000 feet,

and air molecules
pile up on each other.

They create a very dense
layer of air,

and so that's what we call
a shock wave,

and so once,
once we get supersonic,

we'll see these
all over the vehicle.

That dictates our stability
and our control system,

and this gives us
all the data that we need

in order to control the rocket.

NARRATOR:
This data can be used to create
computer simulations

that plot every second
of the rocket's journey.

Rocket science has a thousand
different parts,

a thousand different components

that have to be done perfectly.

It's not just focusing
on one big task.

It's all these little parts.

And when they all come together,

they don't always work
seamlessly.

And so that's why all of
this stuff has to be checked

and tested so rigorously.

NARRATOR:
At the top of the spacecraft

sits the Orion capsule,

which carries
the four astronauts.

Its cabin is 50% larger
than on Apollo--

about the size
of a passenger van.

But before it can go
to the moon,

it needs to be certified ready
to fly.

♪ ♪

To do this, engineers are
running post-flight tests

on the returned capsule
from Artemis I.

(sound roaring)

They start by shaking
the capsule,

blasting it with extreme noise,

equivalent to the sound
of 200 jet engines...

(sound roaring)

...simulating the most extreme
vibrations

that might occur
during a mission.

(sound roaring)

The focus today
is on the forward bay cover,

the cap on top of the capsule.

It needs to eject on re-entry

so the parachutes
can deploy safely.

This happened on Artemis I.

But now they're testing
the same mechanism

for Artemis II

with a replacement
forward bay cover.

ROBERT OVERY:
It takes

less than a second

for the pyros or
explosives

to separate
that cover.

But it takes months
to plan,

months to make sure
that everything is set up.

Like, we're looking here
at a catch system,

so the forward bay cover
will go into that net,

the bungee cords then will keep
a tension so it stays in that,

and then we have very high-speed
photogrammetry cameras

that are set up with
extremely bright lights

that are focused
on the hardware,

so the engineers can analyze it

and see if all the systems
are performing as expected.

NARRATOR:
If any wires or bolts have
come loose from the shaking,

the mechanism won't function
properly...

...potentially delaying
the launch of Artemis II.

Ready to test?

All right, let's go test.

MICHAEL SEE:
Testing does end up requiring

more time to be put

into the design development
process

of, of spacecraft.

But it's necessary.

At both the component level

and all the way up
to the entire system level.

That's how
we fly spacecraft safely.

MAN (on radio):
On my mark, all fire FBC pyros.

Three.

Two.

One.

(explosion echoes)

MAN:
Yes.
Yes!

(all applauding)

MAN (on radio):
Pyros fired.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The forward bay cover
has detached cleanly.

The capsule's design
has passed its test.

But all is not well with Orion.

When Artemis I splashed down,

the mission was hailed
as a great success.

But in reality, there
were problems with the capsule.

When it was hauled
onto the recovery ship,

it was quickly examined
by engineers,

their biggest concern
the heat shield.

How was it affected
by the intense heat of re-entry?

(whistling)

Its epoxy resin tiles were
meant to melt and vaporize,

taking heat away
from the capsule.

But it didn't work out
like that.

ADERIN:
This report caused quite
a stir when it came out.

It makes some pretty
sort of damning claims, really.

What I'm looking at here
especially is the pictures

of the Orion heat shield.

What you can see is
sort of cavities

and some burn marks
on these areas.

And it is pretty scary,

because this was a technology,

it's going to be used

to get people to the moon,
and yet

there is this degradation.

And the inspector general
actually says,

"In our judgment, the unexpected
behavior of the heat shield

"poses a significant risk
to the safety

of future crewed missions."

And sort of having something
like that written in a report

means a response is needed.

Something has to change.

Because this sort of charring
of the heat shield

could risk human life.

The material's ablative,

so it sort of burns away slowly.

And you expect that.

But you didn't expect
chunks of it

to fall away like they did.

When you see something
that anomalous

on a critical system
like the heat shield,

where there's no backup,

then that really
raises your concerns.

NELSON:
The technologies that we thought
would be ready are not

because there was some charring

on Artemis I.

That was one
of the unexpected things.

NARRATOR:
The dangers of re-entry
are all too familiar to NASA.

BRAD WATSON:
It looks like you can see pieces
of the shuttle coming off.

CHARLES HOBAUGH (on radio):
Columbia, Houston,

UHF comm check.

Columbia, Houston,

UHF comm check.

NARRATOR:
Damage to the thermal
protection system

led to the breakup of Columbia

on its return to Earth.

As with Challenger,

seven astronauts
lost their lives.

LEINFELDER:
The space shuttle
had two major disasters

and 14 astronauts died.

That, that has weighed heavily
on NASA, on America.

And it's definitely
something that has affected

this mission and other
human spaceflight missions.

NARRATOR:
The launch of Artemis II
is postponed

as NASA investigates what
went wrong with the heat shield

and how best
to proceed with the mission.

While engineers search
for a solution

to the heat shield problem,

the astronauts
continue training.

Today,
they're in the Orion simulator,

practicing each maneuver,

engine burn,
and course correction.

Even communicating with mission
control is a training exercise.

Copy, burning.

Copy.

WISEMAN:
There is a lot of training.

If we were to boil it all down,

we could probably get it done
in under a year,

but we are also flying
this vehicle

for the first time, so we do
need to spend

a lot more time than the next
crew will have to spend

on just all of the what ifs.

All right,
we're starting to climb.

KOCH:
I see good numbers.

I concur.

NARRATOR:
During the mission,
they'll be testing

the human systems
that couldn't be tested

on Artemis I:

flight control, navigation,

and life support.

WISEMAN:
We are talking to the engineers,

going through
every single detail with them.

We're road-testing the training,

we're road-testing
the preparation towards launch,

we're road-testing all of that--
that's our job.

There's the moon.

Nice.
MAN:
Boom.

Looks like we're pointed
in the right direction.

PEAKE:
There is no substitute
for preparation.

There's no substitute

for having an intimate knowledge

of what you're doing.

And what that allows you to do

is generate options when things
go wrong.

As we say in the military,

"You train hard,
you fight easy."

(speaking softly)

BERGER:
On the Artemis II mission,

the astronauts aren't going
to do much flying.

They're going to do
some demonstrations,

but that's not essential.

Orion could fly itself
to around the moon.

But in emergencies,
you do want humans flying.

That's what they train for.

MAN (on radio):
Orion, Houston,
looks like a good burn.

WISEMAN:
Okay, excellent news,
Houston.

We saw a good burn and
all good indications up here.

There's more steps
to this

than maybe...
Yeah.

ADERIN:
I often get asked,

why put people in space?

We have robotic missions,
we have A.I.

Why have humans?

(speaking indistinctly)

ADERIN:
To me, they are critical

because they are literally
the eyes and the ears

of the mission.

If something goes wrong,

you just need that human
ingenuity to find solutions.

NARRATOR:
NASA had a stark reminder
of this in June 2024,

when the Boeing Starliner
malfunctioned.

CHESHIER:
And we have our first views
of Starliner

from the International
Space Station.

BERGER:
The Starliner mission,

that was supposed to fly itself,

essentially,
to the space station.

And as it got

sort of to within
a few kilometers,

thrusters started blinking out.

Butch Wilmore, who was
the commander of that mission,

took control.

MAN (on radio):
Estimated contact,

a little bit
more than two minutes.

BERGER:
His actions were pretty heroic,

in terms of guiding
that spacecraft

to the space station safely.

(craft thuds softly)

WILMORE (on radio):
Capture.

If a human
had not been on board,

that, that mission
would have been lost.

WILMORE (on radio):
It's nice to be attached
to the big city in the sky.

NARRATOR:
After a two-year investigation

into the safety
of the heat shield,

NASA finally announces
its conclusions.

They blame the damage
on the skip entry maneuver,

which was used on Artemis I

to slow down the capsule
during re-entry.

This is a technique we use
coming back from the moon,

because the velocity
is much greater

than coming back
from low-Earth orbit.

♪ ♪

They were trying a different
re-entry procedure,

a, a skip entry.

So that's where the spacecraft

dips into the Earth's
atmosphere once,

then it creates
a, a small amount of lift,

it exits the Earth's atmosphere,

and then it comes back in
a second time for the re-entry.

And by doing that skip maneuver,

it meant that layers of gas

were trapped
inside the heat shield.

So when it came into Earth's
atmosphere for the second time,

those gases had to escape,
and that caused cracking

and chunks of the heat shield
to come off.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
NASA decides to keep
the existing heat shield design

for Artemis II,

but to ditch
the "double dip" skip entry.

Instead, Artemis II
will make what engineers call

a ballistic entry,
with a single, steeper profile,

as if the capsule has been
fired like a bullet from a gun.

But will it work?

We don't know.

I mean, the engineering,
the models,

all the modeling
suggests it will work.

But all of that data suggested

that with the skip re-entry
on Artemis I,

there wouldn't be heat shield
loss, so...

This is a compromise.

They're keeping
the existing heat shield,

because to design a new one
would take an awful long time.

But with all space missions,
there is a risk.

They've mitigated the risk
as much as possible,

but there is still always
that risk that there could be

a catastrophic failure
and loss of life.

I do think, ultimately,
if Artemis is going

to be carried out on any
kind of a, you know,

reasonable timeline,

there will have
to be some risks taken.

I think we're seeing that
with the Orion heat shield

being flown as is on Artemis II.

WISEMAN:
We'll be nervous coming in.

You can't be not nervous.

But you trust the architecture,

you trust the, the engineering,
and it's going to work out.

♪ ♪

JARED ISAACMAN:
Now, this is the start
of a very long journey.

We ended our last human
exploration of the moon

in Apollo 17, the 17th mission.

And I hope someday my kids
are going to be watching--

maybe decades into the future--

the Artemis 100 mission.

We should be able
to undertake repeatable,

affordable missions
to and from the moon.

NARRATOR:
The SLS rocket rolls slowly out
to the launchpad.

Top speed, 0.8 miles per hour.

KRISTIN FISHER:
You four are about to fly
farther into space

than any humans have ever flown.

But how are you training
your families

as you get ready to leave them
behind on Earth?

WISEMAN:
I try to train them
honestly and openly.

With my kids, I told them,

"Here's where the will is;

"here's where the trust
documents are;

"and if anything happens to me,

here's what's going
to happen to you."

It's our families

that we think about the most
on launch day.

NARRATOR:
After 12 hours,

the rocket arrives
at its destination:

launchpad 39B.

♪ ♪

But in February,
it has to roll back again,

into the vehicle assembly
building.

♪ ♪

Engineers have discovered
two problems:

a hydrogen leak

and a helium flow issue.

♪ ♪

By March,
the rocket has been repaired,

and it rolls out again.

NASA sets a new launch date:

April 1, 2026.

WISEMAN:
About nine hours
prior to liftoff,

we'll wake up.

They're gonna take
our temperature,

our weight,
our blood pressure.

Once that's complete,

it's time to go start
getting dressed.

And we'll go
into the suit room.

They'll leak-check us,

make sure our suit
holds pressure.

And then, when that's complete,

we wait until
it's time to walk out.

♪ ♪

From the moment
that you walk out

to go out to the launchpad,

you're on this extremely
choreographed timeline.

MEGAN CRUZ:
We are now under an hour from

the opening of our
two-hour launch window

at 6:24 p.m. Eastern time.

Yes, this has
been a beautiful day...

Rocket science has hundreds

or thousands of things

that all have to go just right.

It all has to be perfect.

The rocket has to launch
within this window.

If it doesn't launch
in this window,

it can't go today.

♪ ♪

(man speaking faintly)

BERGER:
You get to T-minus ten minutes,

ten minutes
to go in the countdown,

they'll pause it there
for about 30 minutes.

They'll go through
and ask basically everyone

if their part of the rocket
or the spacecraft is good to go.

SPAULDING (on radio):
MCO.

MAN (on radio):
T.O. is go.

SPAULDING:
Houston flight.

MAN:
Houston flight is go.

BERGER:
If there's a reading
out of bounds

during that time,

then the countdown
will be stopped

and the launch will be scrubbed
for the day.

WISEMAN (on radio):
Artemis II crew
is go for launch.

BLACKWELL-THOMPSON (on radio):
I copy that.

Good luck.

Godspeed,
Artemis II.

Let's go.

(crowd cheering)

NAIL:
Ten, nine,

eight, seven.

RS-25 engines lit.

Four,

three, two, one.

Booster ignition

and liftoff!

Go!

(crowd cheering)

♪ ♪

NAIL:
The crew of Artemis II

now bound for the moon.

(cheering and whooping)

Humanity's
next great voyage begins.

WISEMAN (on radio):
Good roll pitch.

MAN (on radio):
Roger, roll pitch.

♪ ♪

GARY JORDAN:
Mission Control Houston

seeing good performance
in four main engines.

Three miles in altitude,

traveling more than
1,200 miles per hour.

NARRATOR:
The rocket powers its way
into orbit

as designed by the engineers
at Marshall Space Flight Center.

JORDAN:
Confirm separation.

(bursts)

Now passing
5,000 miles per hour.

♪ ♪

WISEMAN:
Houston, Integrity.

Good LAS jettison,
great view.

MAN (on radio):
Integrity, nominal MECO,

core stage separated.

NARRATOR:
For this voyage,

the crew has renamed their ship
Integrity.

It's now traveling
beyond low-Earth orbit...

(people talking in background)

...heading for the moon.

♪ ♪

HANSEN (on radio):
We know that there was some talk

about some burnt smell
when they-- from the heaters,

so we just thought
we'd check in with you.

NARRATOR:
The astronauts test
the life support systems,

exercise for 30 minutes daily...

WOMAN:
Christina Koch
taking the camera...

NARRATOR:
...and even deal
with a toilet issue...

WOMAN:
...to show us
a wastewater dump.

NARRATOR:
...as they adjust to life

in deep space.

PEAKE:
Your body is being bombarded
by galactic cosmic rays,

and actually, we see that
as astronauts,

when we're falling asleep.

You close your eyes,

and before
you actually drop off,

you'll see several flashes,

like bright streaks of light

going across your eye,

and you know that that's

a high-energy particle

striking
the back of your retina.

It's quite pretty to look at,

but it's, it's not
when you realize

the damage that that
could be doing to your body.

And that could cause
some form of cancer.

GLOVER (on radio):
Good morning, Houston,

from inside Integrity.

NARRATOR:
On day six,

Integrity reaches
the moon.

GLOVER:
...in 12,712 miles...

NARRATOR:
The crew will do
a seven-hour flyby,

capturing high-quality images
of the moon's surface,

going farther from Earth

than any crew has gone before.

But first, they want
to name a crater

located at the western edge
of the moon's near side.

HANSEN (on radio):
A number of years ago,
we started this journey

in our close-knit
astronaut family,

and we lost a loved one.

Her name was Carroll,

the spouse of Reid,

the mother of Katey and Ellie.

(voice trembling):
And we would like to call it
Carroll,

and you spell that
C-A-R-R-O-L-L.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
On the ground, the science team
is receiving live reports

as the astronauts fly
by the moon,

observing different
geological features.

GLOVER (on radio):
I think Copernicus

is the easternmost feature
that we can see.

A very nice ring to the north,
and the south

is with a lot of
terrain shadow features.

(radio beeps)

WOMAN (on radio):
We are getting a sneak preview

from one of our SAW cameras
at what you're looking at

and we see some of
what you're describing.

We love it.

LEINFELDER:
The Artemis II crew

has been trained
to observe the moon,

to find significant features.

As a spacecraft
goes around the moon,

an astronaut can look at
a spot from different angles.

It might take a spacecraft years
to have that trajectory

where they can
see all those angles.

KOCH (on radio):
Something I've never seen
in photographs before

but is very apparent,

all the new craters.

Some of them are super-tiny.

There's a couple that
really stand out, obviously,

and they are so bright

compared to
the rest of the moon.

NARRATOR:
The flyby ends

with a final flourish...

♪ ♪

(people exclaim and gasp)

NARRATOR:
...a total solar eclipse

seen from space.

GLOVER (on radio):
The sun has gone behind the moon

and the corona is still visible.

And it creates a halo
almost around the entire moon.

But when
you get to the Earth side,

the Earthshine is already shown,

and the moon is just
hanging in front of us,

this black orb

out in front of us.

Wow, it's amazing.

(radio beeps)

WISEMAN:
No matter how long
we look at this,

our brains are not processing
this image in front of us.

There's no adjectives.

I'm gonna need to invent
some new ones to describe

what we are looking at
out this window.

(ground crew exclaiming)

MAN:
This is so cool.

NARRATOR:
But as the sun comes out,

it's time for the Artemis crew
to head home.

(bursts)

(hissing)

On day ten,

Integrity separates
from the service module

and falls to Earth.

♪ ♪

BERGER:
Re-entry, I think,

is probably the most critical
part of the mission.

NAVIAS:
You can see the reflection

of one of the crew members
in the window.

BERGER:
You're testing
the Orion heat shield,

which had some failure
during Artemis I.

In terms of pucker factor
for me,

that re-entry will be
the highest part.

♪ ♪

ADERIN:
There's no getting around it--

it is a time of trepidation,

and it is one of those moments

where you,
you wish them Godspeed.

♪ ♪

NAVIAS:
And we have crossed
the threshold,

now entering
the Earth's atmosphere.

This will be a six-minute
blackout period.

No voice, no data from the crew.

NARRATOR:
Integrity's traveling
25,000 miles per hour--

faster than Artemis I,

whose heat shield
was badly damaged.

NAVIAS:
So, that pinpoint of light

shows the vehicle.

The first tug of gravity being
felt by Integrity's astronauts.

NARRATOR:
The minutes tick by.

(static crackling)

NAVIAS:
We're getting intermittent
views.

Still waiting to establish
voice communication.

WOMAN (on radio):
Integrity, Houston.

Comm check post-blackout.

WISEMAN (on radio):
Houston, Integrity,
we have you loud and clear.

(all cheer and applaud)

NAVIAS:
Big cheers from the viewing room
here in mission control

as voice communication
reestablished

with commander Reid Wiseman.

♪ ♪

WOMAN (on radio): We see
three good-looking parachutes.

WISEMAN (on radio):
Integrity copies.

NARRATOR:
NASA's gamble has paid off.

The heat shield
has done its job.

WISEMAN (on radio):
Houston, Integrity--
splashdown...

NARRATOR:
Mission accomplished.

WISEMAN:
...post-landing command now.

(cheering and applauding)

NAVIAS:
Splashdown confirmed.

(cheering)

NAVIAS: The first crew member
is out of Integrity.

BERGER:
My hope is that

this is just the beginning of,

of not Artemis III, IV, V,

but Artemis 30, 50,
and then you have

a growing community
on the moon,

potentially on Mars--
throughout the solar system.

The really hard work for Artemis
is still ahead of us.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪