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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The Crew Module Test Article (CMTA), a full scale mockup of the Orion spacecraft, is seen in the Pacific Ocean as teams practice Artemis recovery operations during Underway Recovery Test-12 onboard USS Somerset off the coast of California, Saturday, March 29, 2025. NASA/Bill Ingalls Preparations for NASA’s next Artemis flight recently took to the seas as a joint NASA and Department of Defense team, led by NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program, spent a week aboard the USS Somerset off the coast of California practicing procedures for recovering the Artemis II spacecraft and crew.
Following successful completion of Underway Recovery Test-12 (URT-12) on Monday, NASA’s Landing and Recovery team and their Defense Department counterparts are certified to recover the Orion spacecraft as part of the upcoming Artemis II test flight that will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as well as CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the Moon.
“This will be NASA’s first crewed mission to the Moon under the Artemis program,” said Lili Villarreal, the landing and recovery director for Artemis II. “A lot of practice led up to this week’s event, and seeing everything come together at sea gives me great confidence that the air, water, ground, and medical support teams are ready to safely recover the spacecraft and the crew for this historic mission.”
A wave breaks inside the well deck of USS Somerset as teams work to recover the Crew Module Test Article (CMTA), a full scale replica of the Orion spacecraft, as they practice Artemis recovery operations during Underway Recovery Test-12 off the coast of California, Thursday, March 27, 2025.NASA/Joel Kowsky Once Orion reenters Earth’s atmosphere, the capsule will keep the crew safe as it slows from nearly 25,000 mph to about 325 mph. Then its system of 11 parachutes will deploy in a precise sequence to slow the capsule and crew to a relatively gentle 20 mph for splashdown off the coast of California. From the time it enters Earth’s atmosphere, the Artemis II spacecraft will fly 1,775 nautical miles to its landing spot in the Pacific Ocean. This direct approach allows NASA to control the amount of time the spacecraft will spend in extremely high temperature ranges.
The Artemis II astronauts trained during URT-11 in February 2024, when they donned Orion Crew Survival System suits and practiced a range of recovery operations at sea using the Crew Module Test Article, a stand -in for their spacecraft.
For the 12th training exercise, NASA astronauts Deniz Burnham and Andre Douglas, along with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano, did the same, moving from the simulated crew module to USS Somerset, with helicopters, a team of Navy divers in small boats, NASA’s open water lead – a technical expert and lead design engineer for all open water operations – as well as Navy and NASA medical teams rehearsing different recovery scenarios.
Grant Bruner, left, and Gary Kirkendall, right, Orion suit technicians, are seen with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano, second from left, and NASA astronauts Deniz Burnham, center, and Andre Douglas, as they prepare to take part in Artemis recovery operations as part of Underway Recovery Test-12 onboard USS Somerset off the coast of California, Thursday, March 27, 2025. NASA/Joel Kowsky “Allowing astronauts to participate when they are not directly involved in a mission gives them valuable experience by exposing them to a lot of different scenarios,” said Glover, who will pilot Artemis II. “Learning about different systems and working with ground control teams also broadens their skillsets and prepares them for future roles. It also allows astronauts like me who are assigned to the mission to experience other roles – in this case, I am serving in the role of Joe Acaba, Chief of the Astronaut Office.”
NASA astronaut and Artemis II pilot Victor Glover, right, speaks to NASA astronauts Andre Douglas and Deniz Burnham as they prepare to take part in practicing Artemis recovery procedures during Underway Recovery Test-12 onboard USS Somerset off the coast of California, Friday, March 28, 2025.NASA/Joel Kowsky NASA astronaut Deniz Burnham smiles after landing in a Navy helicopter onboard USS Somerset during Underway Recovery Test-12 off the coast of California, Thursday, March 27, 2025.NASA/Bill Ingalls As the astronauts arrive safely at the ship for medical checkouts, recovery teams focus on returning the spacecraft and its auxiliary ground support hardware to the amphibious transport dock.
Navy divers attach a connection collar to the spacecraft and an additional line to a pneumatic winch inside the USS Somerset’s well deck, allowing joint NASA and Navy teams to tow Orion toward the ship. A team of sailors and NASA recovery personnel inside the ship manually pull some of the lines to help align Orion with its stand, which will secure the spacecraft for its trip to the shore. Following a safe and precise recovery, sailors will drain the well deck of water, and the ship will make its way back to Naval Base San Diego.
The Artemis II test flight will confirm the foundational systems and hardware needed for human deep space exploration, taking another step toward missions on the lunar surface and helping the agency prepare for human missions to Mars.
About the Author
Allison Tankersley
Public Affairs Specialist
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Last Updated Mar 31, 2025 Related Terms
Missions Artemis 2 Exploration Ground Systems Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Explore More
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By NASA
NASA logo. NASA has awarded SpaceX of Starbase, Texas, a modification under the NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract to add Starship to their existing Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch service offerings.
The NLS II contracts provide a broad range of commercial launch services for NASA’s planetary, Earth-observing, exploration, and scientific satellites. These high-priority, low and medium risk tolerant missions have full NASA technical oversight and mission assurance, resulting in the highest probability of launch success.
The NLS II contracts are multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, with an ordering period through June 2030 and an overall period of performance through December 2032. The contracts include an on-ramp provision that provides an opportunity annually for new launch service providers to add their launch service on an NLS II contract and compete for future missions and allows existing contractors to introduce launch services not currently on their NLS II contracts.
The contracts support the goals and objectives of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate, Space Operations Mission Directorate, Explorations Systems Development Mission Directorate, and the Space Technology Mission Directorate. Under the contracts, NASA also can provide launch services to other federal government agencies.
NASA’s Launch Services Program Office at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida manages the NLS II contracts. For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov
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Tiernan Doyle / Joshua Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600 / 202-358-1100
tiernan.doyle@.nasa.gov / joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov
Patti Bielling
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-501-7575
patricia.a.bielling@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Mar 28, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
NASA Directorates Space Operations Mission Directorate View the full article
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By NASA
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 members stand inside the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. From left are Mission Specialist Kimiya Yui from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Commander NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, Mission Specialist Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos, and Pilot NASA astronaut Mike Fincke.Credit: NASA As part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission, four crew members from three space agencies will launch in the coming months to the International Space Station for a long-duration science expedition aboard the orbiting laboratory.
NASA astronauts Commander Zena Cardman and Pilot Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Mission Specialist Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mission Specialist Oleg Platonov will join crew members aboard the space station no earlier than July 2025.
The flight is the 11th crew rotation with SpaceX to the station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The crew will conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations to help prepare humans for future missions to the Moon, as well as benefit people on Earth.
Cardman previously was assigned to NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, and Fincke previously was assigned to NASA’s Boeing Starliner-1 mission. NASA decided to reassign the astronauts to Crew-11 in overall support of planned activities aboard the International Space Station. Cardman carries her experience training as a commander on Dragon spacecraft, and Fincke brings long-duration spaceflight experience to this crew complement.
Selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017, Cardman will conduct her first spaceflight. The Williamsburg, Virginia, native holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology and a master’s in Marine Sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At the time of selection, she had begun pursuing a doctorate in Geosciences. Cardman’s research in geobiology and geochemical cycling focused on subsurface environments, from caves to deep sea sediments. Since completing initial training, Cardman has supported real-time station operations and lunar surface exploration planning.
This will be Fincke’s fourth trip to the space station, having logged 382 days in space and nine spacewalks during Expedition 9 in 2004, Expedition 18 in 2008, and STS-134 in 2011, the final flight of space shuttle Endeavour. Throughout the past decade, Fincke has applied his expertise to NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, advancing the development and testing of the SpaceX Dragon and Boeing Starliner toward operational certification. The Emsworth, Pennsylvania, native is a distinguished graduate of the United States Air Force Test Pilot School and holds bachelors’ degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, in both Aeronautics and Astronautics, as well as Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. He also has a master’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University in California. Fincke is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel with more than 2,000 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft.
With 142 days in space, this will be Yui’s second trip to the space station. After his selection as a JAXA astronaut in 2009, Yui flew as a flight engineer for Expedition 44/45 and became the first Japanese astronaut to capture JAXA’s H-II Transfer Vehicle. In addition to constructing a new experimental environment aboard Kibo, he conducted a total of 21 experiments for JAXA. In November 2016, Yui was assigned as chief of the JAXA Astronaut Group. He graduated from the School of Science and Engineering at the National Defense Academy of Japan in 1992. He later joined the Air Self-Defense Force at the Japan Defense Agency (currently Ministry of Defense). In 2008, Yui joined the Air Staff Office at the Ministry of Defense as a lieutenant colonel.
The Crew-11 mission will be Platonov’s first spaceflight. Before his selection as a cosmonaut in 2018, Platonov earned a degree in Engineering from Krasnodar Air Force Academy in Aircraft Operations and Air Traffic Management. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in State and Municipal Management in 2016 from the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, Russia. Assigned as a test cosmonaut in 2021, he has experience in piloting aircraft, zero gravity training, scuba diving, and wilderness survival.
For more than two decades, people have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies, making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The station is a critical testbed for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and to expand commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit. As commercial companies focus on providing human space transportation services and destinations as part of a robust low Earth orbit economy, NASA’s Artemis campaign is underway at the Moon, where the agency is preparing for future human exploration of Mars.
Learn more about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
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Joshua Finch / Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov
Courtney Beasley / Chelsey Ballarte
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
courtney.m.beasley@nasa.gov / chelsey.n.ballarte@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Mar 27, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Commercial Space Commercial Crew Humans in Space International Space Station (ISS) ISS Research Johnson Space Center Low Earth Orbit Economy Space Operations Mission Directorate
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By Space Force
The U.S. Space Force and ULA launch team successfully completed the certification process of the Vulcan rocket. The first NSSL mission on Vulcan is expected this summer.
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