Scott Detrow

This doesn't look like much, but this will be the acceleration time profile for going into space.

The things that we really look at are VI in the upper left.

That's our velocity.

When we leave planet Earth, we're zero miles an hour.

And when we hit low Earth orbit, we're doing 17,000 miles an hour.

And then when we come back in the atmosphere, we're doing...

Wiseman and three other astronauts will spend 10 days flying to the moon and back.

Artemis II will be the first crewed mission to the moon since the end of the Apollo program.

The Artemis program is intentionally more representative than Apollo was.

Christina Cook will be the first woman to fly to the moon.

The mission's pilot, Victor Glover, will be the first person of color to fly that far.

Previously, he was the first black astronaut to live on the International Space Station.

He was training elsewhere on the day I visited NASA, but spoke to NPR at another point.

It's all as historic and high stakes as it gets, and also pretty daunting.

There's that whole 25,000 mile an hour reentry to think about, and also the fact the crew will have to spend 10 whole days in this small capsule about 12 feet wide inside, but in many places, just five feet or so tall.

Yeah.

Mission specialist Christina Cook, like Wiseman, has been to space before.

She spent nearly a year on the International Space Station.

That seems like the coolest spot.

I like how Christina didn't identify that she has already declared that spot hers, but we know that is her spot.