Last week, NASA challenged the public to discover ”
fun puzzles, hidden messages and visual references
scattered throughout the cockpit of the Orion capsule. The space agency has just revealed the contents of these five surprises as the spacecraft successfully returned to Earth last Sunday, successfully concluding the Artemis I mission.
In the photo showing the interior of Orion, the red bird in the upper right is a tribute to former Orion program manager and Johnson Space Center director Mark Geyer, who died in 2021. He was a huge fan of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team whose emblem this bird is.
In the top center of the image, the series of black dots and dashes is a Morse code message that spells the name “Charlie” when read from bottom to top. It is also a posthumous tribute to Charlie Lundquist, deputy director of the Orion program, who died in 2020. He had worked on Orion since 2008.
Tribute to Frank Sinatra and the Apollo program
On the central “Callisto Tech Demo” panel, in front of the pilot’s seat, a series of numbers starting with 1 represent the codes of the countries that worked on the development of the European Space Agency’s service module. This module was responsible for powering and propelling Orion. The numbers honor the United States, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Spain, and the Netherlands.
On the right wall is a series of letters: CBAGF. This is a reference to the notes used in the recording of Fly Me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra in 1964. It is a way of making the link between Orion and the exploration of the Moon at the time of the Apollo program.
The final secret message is on the top of the pilot’s seat, to the right of the red NASA logo. It’s a binary code for the number 18. It’s a nod to the sequel to Apollo and Artemis. The last mission of the Apollo program was Apollo 17 in 1972. Artemis picks up where Apollo left off.
The success of Artemis I ideally prepares the rest of the program which will see a first human crew boarding Orion for the Artemis II mission scheduled for May 2024.
CNET.com article adapted by CNETFrance
Image : Nasa
