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NASA Artemis mission

Artemis I/Orion has just completed the DRO insertion burn and is now in Distant Retrograde Orbit around the Moon (between the 8 and 6 o'clock positions in the following animation).
Artemis I/Orion DRO orbit (between the 8 and 6 o'clock positions).
On 1 December it will execute a departure burn, which will see it pass close to the lunar surface once more (around 130 km on 5 Dec). Just minutes before that closest approach (5 o'clock position in the above animation) it will conduct the trans-Earth injection burn to ultimately place it on an Earth return trajectory leading to splashdown on 11 Dec.
 
Artemis I/Orion isn't likely to have great naked eye viewing opportunities because it is going to arrive fast from cislunar space direct to re-entry over the Pacific - some people in/around the Hawaiian islands might get a chance to spot it just before sunrise. It might be briefly visible in smaller optical devices from a dark UK location in the SE sky about an hour or so prior to re-entry (I can't find a reliable return trajectory ephemeris right now), but twilight will probably interfere to some degree.

Separately people are reporting Bluewalker 3 as being as bright as magnitude +2 or close to +1 at times. That's visible in evening skies over the UK right now. Predictions are available eg here.
 
Just found the right data. Given clear skies the Orion spacecraft might be visible from the UK with a decent amateur telescope in dark skies the evening prior to re-entry (ie 10 Dec). It would be coasting between Cetus and Eridanus (about midway between Rigel and Jupiter in the lower southern sky), closing from 200,000 to 150,000 km away (which would imply no naked eye visibility - that's ~5 times further away than geostationary satellites sit and some of those only rarely become naked eye visible when they flare around the equinoxes). Otherwise it is 'behind' the Earth as seen from the UK (steep approach trajectory) as it closes further.
 
That's the nature of the distant retrograde orbit (DRO) that was selected for this mission. Artemis II will be a hybrid free return trajectory (like Apollo H/J missions) before Artemis III onwards make use of a near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO). Both DRO and NHRO are stable (DRO > NHRO >> hybrid free return‡), and are thus fuel efficient, long duration solutions to the three body problem (it's the dance between terrestrial+lunar+solar gravity and the resulting Lagrange points that dictates the variations in orbital altitudes). Both DRO and NRHO offer ease of access from Earth. DRO offers wider remote sensing and continuous communications relay coverage, whilst NRHO compromises on those somewhat but opens up lots of options for transfer to the lunar surface (NRHO wins over DRO because it offers more for sufficient stability; the even longer stability of DRO isn't advantageous for human surface exploration).

‡ The lunar gravitational field is very 'lumpy' (due to large, dense impact mascons) so objects in 'classic' lunar orbits don't last very long (usually impact the surface or easily get perturbed out into cislunar/heliocentric space on timescales of a few weeks to months).
 
Blue Origin drop Northrop Grumman and pick up Boeing for their Lunar Lander team.
www.reuters.com

Bezos' space company teams with Lockheed, Boeing for NASA moon lander pitch

Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin is partnering with Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp to pitch a lunar lander to NASA as the agency seeks to send humans to the moon again, the companies announced on Tuesday.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
The decision is for a second lander due in June 2023, the competition was organised after SpaceX won the first one and Bezos tantrumed so hard they gave him a redo.
 
NASA TV - Earth seen from Orion, around 18,000km altitude.​

First ever skip-entry planned for a human rated spacecraft - to reduce g-loading, aerothermal loads and reduce splashdown recovery ellipse (place Orion much closer to recovery forces). Apollo was theoretically capable but they never attempted due to lack of confidence (insufficient computational simulation power - real gas/hot gas physics models were very poor at the time).
Lunar entry modes.
Orion skip-entry profile.
The double entry (initial dive to about 70km altitude, then climb out to around 100km) provides flexibility in tuning final entry (and thus range positioning) according to the state of the upper atmosphere at the time of entry.

www.lockheedmartin.com

Orion Skip Maneuver

When NASA’s Orion returned to Earth on Dec. 11, it successfully performed the first skip-entry maneuver for a human spacecraft.
www.lockheedmartin.com www.lockheedmartin.com
 
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Just got a brief live visual confirmation of the formation of the plasma shock layer and tail build-up around Orion at initial entry interface before comms were lost.
Orion hatch camera, plasma shock layer build-up, NASA TV. Orion hatch camera, plasma shock layer build-up, NASA TV.​
With live video from the cabin continuing post-final-entry as it coasts in dropping from hypersonic to subsonic.
 
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Very disappointed to hear of NASA's lack of ambition.

After the near-flawless performance of Artemis 1, I hear they are merely hoping for a crude mission next time. :(
 
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