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As expected on December 11, 2022 the Orion spacecraft of the mission Artemis I successfully moored off the coast of California in the Pacific Ocean. This was a historic moment for space exploration in view of future manned missions that will bring humans back around the Moon in 2024 (date to be confirmed), while a year later there will be the possibility of arriving again on its surface.
Now that the capsule has returned to Earth after a mission of about 25 days, it will be possible to analyze the hardware and all the data saved locally inside the storage of the spacecraft. This will allow engineers to know in detail all the useful information and above all to certify Orion for manned flights. However, it will take some time before precise information is provided as the capsule will have to return to the Kennedy Space Center (located in Florida). There NASA he also revealed that he wanted to “hide” some easter eggs and references inside the spacecraft. Here’s what they are.
The messages and references present in the Orion capsule
As written above, after being ditched on December 11 and being transported inside the USS Portland ship (with the latter arriving at Naval Base San Diego), the Orion capsule will return to Kennedy Space Center by land for the necessary analyses. Some components will also be installed inside the new capsule for the Artemis II mission (the first with human crew), after the due checks.
Inside the capsule Artemis I mission there were some messages and references, as explained by NASA itself. It is not a conspiracy or some strange theory but a way to pay homage to events from the past, people or events. Something similar happened for example with the Mars 2020 mission and the parachute used for the landing of the Perseverance rover or the presence of the names of those who “signed up” to the campaign promoted by NASA.
In the case of the Orion spacecraft we find for example the effigy of a red cardinal (bird) positioned above the window to the right of the pilot’s seat. This is a freebie Mark Geyer (died 2021) who was director of the Johnson Space Center and a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals, a baseball team in Saint Louis. Geyer was also the first Orion program director and oversaw the first orbital test in 2014.
Above the Callisto experiment there is instead a Morse code writing that reads “Charlie” in memory of Charlie Lundquist (disappeared in 2020). Lundquist he has been Deputy Director of the Orion program working on it since 2008. A definite figure “determinant” by the space agency.
Then there are the prefixes of the ESA countries (in addition to the United States) that participated in the creation of the European service module which was fundamental for the mission. We find the United States, Germany, Italy (the 39), Switzerland, France, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Spain and the Netherlands.
Another mysterious writing reads “CBAGF”. These are the notes of the well-known song “Fly Me to the Moon” in Frank Sinatra’s 1964 version (which has in the past been associated with the Apollo program missions). Then there is the number 18 written in binary code. It’s sort of “handover” between the Apollo and Artemis programs considering that the former ended with the Apollo 17 mission.
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