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NASA Artemis II Astronauts Gear Up For ‘Fireball’ Re-Entry To Conclude Historic Lunar Mission
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Four astronauts returning from the far side of the moon on NASA’s Artemis II mission shared their emotions as they concluded the unprecedented flight and prepared for re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere in a “fireball” during their first press conference from space on Wednesday.
The Artemis II crew, flying in the Orion capsule since launching from Florida last week, were scheduled to splash down off the Southern California coast on Friday evening after reaching the moon earlier this week. Their trajectory took them past the shadowed lunar far side, making them the farthest-flying humans in history.
On the return journey, the astronauts will reach speeds of up to 23,839 mph (38,365 kph) as they enter Earth’s atmosphere, a high-risk phase that will test Orion’s heat shield against intense friction.
“I’ve actually been thinking about entry since April 3, 2023, when we got assigned to this mission,” said mission pilot Victor Glover. “There’s so many more pictures, so many more stories, and gosh, I haven’t even begun to process what we’ve been through. We still have two more days, and riding a fireball through the atmosphere is profound as well.”
Fellow NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen are the first crew in a multibillion-dollar series of Artemis missions aiming to return humans to the lunar surface by 2028 and establish a long-term US presence for future Mars missions.
Koch likened the mission series to a relay race, “In fact, we have batons that we bought to symbolize, physically, that. We plan to hand them to the next crew, and every single thing that we do is with them in mind.”
Artemis III will involve a docking test in low-Earth orbit between Orion and the lunar landers designed for future moon landings. Artemis IV, targeted for 2028, will be the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Back on Earth, lunar scientists at NASA’s Mission Control in Houston monitored the crew’s activities, taking notes and debating real-time and recorded audio from the Artemis II mission.
The crew is due to return Friday around 8 p.m. ET (0000 GMT Saturday), capping a nearly 10-day mission. On Monday, they reached a record-breaking distance of roughly 252,000 miles from Earth, surpassing Apollo 13’s previous record by about 4,000 miles.
Wiseman said each crew member had two brief video chats with family during the mission. Hansen proposed naming a new lunar crater after Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll, creating an emotional moment both for the crew and for mission control staff.
During a six-hour lunar flyby, the crew surveyed the moon’s surface from roughly 4,000 miles above, providing real-time scientific observations. This allowed rare interactive discussions between scientists on the ground and crew members in deep space.
Koch described the moon as a “witness plate” to the solar system’s formation, emphasising that Artemis II is an early, critical step toward unlocking mysteries of our planetary neighborhood.
The Permanent Chairman of the Southern Nigerian Traditional Rulers Council (SNTRC), Arole Oodua Olofin Adimula and the Natural Head of the Oduduwa race worldwide, the Ooni of Ife, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, has rubbished reports circulating on social media alleging that he conferred a chieftaincy title on popular Nollywood actor and comedian, James Olanrewaju, popularly known as Baba Ijesha.
In a statement on Saturday by the Director of Media and Public Affairs, Ooni’s Palace, Otunba Moses Olafare said the Ooni clarified that although he warmly received the actor and his wife at the Ile Oodua Palace on Wednesday to celebrate the birth of his son and presented him with a brand-new car and cash gifts as a demonstration of his fatherly love and royal generosity, no chieftaincy title was conferred on him.
According to him, the expression “Awada Konge Oduwa,” which Baba Ijesha later described on his social media pages as a chieftaincy title, was merely a light-comedy remark made by the Ooni during a relaxed interaction in recognition of the actor’s outstanding career as a comedian.
The remark was never intended to constitute a formal installation or conferment of a traditional title.
The Ooni noted that Baba Ijesha, as an indigene of Ile-Ife and a proud son of the source, is deserving of honour and could be considered for a chieftaincy title in the future.
However, no such title has been conferred on him.
“The conferment of chieftaincy titles in Ile-Ife remains a sacred traditional process governed by established customs, consultations and traditional rites, which are publicly conducted in accordance with the age-long traditions of the source. None of these customary procedures took place during the actor’s visit to the Palace, “he said.
While appreciating Baba Ijesha for acknowledging the royal kindness extended to him and his family, the Ooni urged media organisations and members of the public to disregard reports claiming that the actor has been installed as the “Awada Konge Oduwa” or conferred with any chieftaincy title.
The Ooni reaffirmed his commitment to celebrating and supporting deserving sons and daughters of Ile-Ife and the Oodua race at large while preserving the sanctity, dignity and integrity of the revered traditional institution of chieftaincy.
The Presidency has called on security and anti-graft agencies to identify, arrest and prosecute government officials who may have collaborated with Prince Matthew Adeniyi Adeyemi in the alleged operation of two fictitious federal government agencies.
Adeyemi is accused of creating the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council and the Presidential Economic Advisory Council using allegedly forged documents purportedly linked to the Presidency.
In a statement on his verified X handle, the Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, said investigators must go beyond Adeyemi and expose the internal network that allegedly enabled him to operate for an extended period.
Ajayi urged the Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate all officials within public institutions who may have aided the alleged scheme.
According to Ajayi, much of the public debate has ignored the fact that government institutions detected the alleged fraud and acted on it.
He said officials of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, working with officers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, first discovered inconsistencies in Adeyemi’s operations and reported the matter to the appropriate authorities.
“Contrary to the anything-goes narrative being promoted, it was the system itself that raised the red flag and dealt with it administratively,” Ajayi said.
He, however, acknowledged that the suspect could not have operated for long without help from insiders.
“What is not in doubt is that internal collaborators enabled Adeyemi to get this far. That is precisely what investigators from the DSS, the Police and the EFCC must now unravel.
“The criminal network within the affected institutions must be dismantled and everyone found to have played a role should be arrested and prosecuted,” he said.
The Presidency had earlier disowned the disowned the two organisations, insisting that they did not exist as government agencies.
It also maintained that the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, neither authorised Adeyemi’s activities nor had any connection with them.
“In Nigeria, the easiest and most believable allegation anyone can throw at a public officer is corruption.
“Once that accusation is thrown into the mix, the water is polluted, the lines are blurred and everyone is kept busy arguing over distractions rather than the real issues,” he wrote.
He described Adeyemi as “an irredeemable con artist” who was using allegations against the Chief of Staff as “his last straw” to avoid criminal liability.
The Presidency insisted that the case should not be framed as evidence of complicity at the highest levels of government, but as an alleged fraud uncovered by the system itself.
Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, Abuja Region has announced a planned preventive maintenance at the Katampe 132/33 KiloVolt (kV) Transmission Substation on Saturday from 9:00am to 4:00pm.
General Manager, Public Affairs of the TCN, Mrs Ndidi Mbah, made this announcement in a statement in Abuja on Saturday.
Mbah said the scheduled maintenance is to enable TCN’s maintenance crew carry out preventive maintenance on the 100 Mega Volt Ampere (MVA) 132/33kV Power Transformer (TR1), its auxiliaries, and associated switchgear in the substation.
”Consequently, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, AEDC, will be unable to off-take bulk power for distribution to customers in parts of Mpape, Maitama, Jahi, Life Camp,
”Others are Kado Fish Market, Idu-Karmo, and their environs during the maintenance period,” she said.
According to her, the company regrets any inconvenience the planned outage may cause electricity customers in the affected areas.
She added that equipment maintenance is essential to ensure their continued optimal performance.
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