NASA Hid These Easter Eggs for Space Nerds on the Artemis 1 Orion Capsule

Following its journey to the Moon and again, NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashed down into the Pacific Ocean on Sunday. The inaugural flight for the Artemis program might have been uncrewed, however Orion carried 5 souvenirs to honor a legacy of lunar exploration.

NASA has a longstanding custom of stashing hidden messages and mementos on board its spacecraft. In 1977, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 launched to interstellar area carrying a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk often known as The Golden Record. The phonograph report included varied photos and sounds that symbolize life on Earth in case it’s ever discovered by spacefaring aliens. More lately, NASA engineers encoded a binary message on the Perseverance rover’s parachute that learn, “Dare Mighty Things.”

For the Artemis 1 mission to the Moon, NASA caught to a lunar theme. The Orion capsule had 5 hidden messages positioned across the crew cabin, NASA revealed in a press launch on Saturday.

Binary code

Binary code for the quantity 18 was place on the highest of the pilot’s seat as a tribute to NASA’s Apollo program. On December 11, 1972, the Apollo 17 mission touched down on the Moon, marking the final time astronauts walked on the lunar floor.

With the Artemis program, NASA is hoping to land people on the Moon as a part of the Artemis 3 mission set to happen no sooner than 2025. The quantity 18 symbolizes a human spacecraft’s return to the Moon following Apollo 17.

Fly me to the Moon

On the appropriate aspect of the Orion spacecraft, the letters CBAGF are written beneath one of many home windows. The letters symbolize Frank Sinatra’s music, “Fly Me to the Moon,” representing the musical notes of the acquainted tune.

A tribute cardinal

NASA positioned a picture of a cardinal above the window to the appropriate of Orion’s pilot seat as a tribute to Mark Geyer, former Orion program supervisor, who died in 2021. Geyer was a religious St. Louis Cardinals fan, based on NASA.

Code for Charlie

The area company additionally paid tribute to the lifetime of former Orion Deputy Program Manager Charlie Lundquist, who died in 2020.

NASA included the morse code for “Charlie” to acknowledge the function that Lundquist performed within the improvement of Orion.

European cooperation

NASA acknowledged the cooperation of its companions from the European Space Agency who developed the service module for the Orion spacecraft.

In entrance of the pilot’s seat, the area company included the nation codes of every nation that took half in creating the spacecraft, together with; the United States, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Spain, and The Netherlands.

More: Orion Splashes Down in Pacific, Ending NASA’s Historic Artemis 1 Moon Mission