NASA’s Orion spacecraft is shown splashing over the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California at 9:40 a.m. PST on Sunday, Dec. 11.
Credits: NASA
NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashed down into the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California at 9:40 a.m. PST Sunday after a record-breaking mission, traveling more than 1.4 million miles on a path around the Moon and returning safely to Earth, completing the Artemis I flight test.
Splashdown is the final milestone of the Artemis I mission that began with a successful liftoff of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on Nov. 16 from Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Over the course of 25.5 days, NASA tested Orion in the harsh environment of deep space before flying astronauts on Artemis II.
The fall of the Orion spacecraft that occurred 50 years ago to the day of the Apollo 17 moon landing is the crowning achievement of Artemis I. Since the launch of the world’s most powerful rocket to the exceptional journey around the Moon and back to Earth, this test flight is a major step forward in lunar exploration for the Artemis generation, said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. It wouldn’t be possible without the incredible team at NASA. For years, thousands of individuals have poured themselves into this mission, which is inspiring the world to work together to reach pristine cosmic shores. Today is a great victory for NASA, the United States, our international partners, and all of humanity.
During the mission, Orion performed two lunar flybys, 80 miles from the lunar surface. At its furthest distance during the mission, Orion traveled nearly 270,000 miles from our home planet, more than 1,000 times farther than where the International Space Station orbits Earth, to intentionally stress systems ahead of the flight crew.
With Orion safely back on Earth, we can begin to see our next mission on the horizon, which will fly crew to the Moon for the first time as part of the next era of exploration, said Jim Free, Associate Administrator of NASA for the development of exploration systems. Direction of the Mission. This begins our path toward a regular cadence of missions and a sustained human presence on the Moon for scientific discovery and to prepare for human missions to Mars.
Before entering the Earth’s atmosphere, the crew module separated from its service module, which is the propulsion plant provided by the ESA (European Space Agency). During reentry, Orion endured temperatures about half as hot as the Sun’s surface at about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. In about 20 minutes, Orion slowed from nearly 25,000 mph to about 20 mph for its parachute-assisted splashdown.
During the flight test, Orion stayed in space longer than any spacecraft designed for astronauts has done without docking at a space station. While in distant lunar orbit, Orion surpassed the record for distance traveled by a spacecraft designed to carry humans, previously set during Apollo 13.
Orion has returned from the Moon and returned safely to planet Earth, said Mike Sarafin, Artemis I mission manager. With Splashdown, we have successfully operated Orion in the deep space environment, where it exceeded our expectations , and we showed that Orion can withstand the extreme conditions of returning through the Earth’s atmosphere from lunar velocities.
Recovery teams are now working to secure Orion for the journey home. NASA is leading the USS Portland interagency landing and recovery team, which consists of U.S. Department of Defense personnel and assets, including Navy amphibian specialists, Space Force meteorologists, and the Air Force, as well as engineers and technicians from NASA Kennedy. , the Johnson Space Center in Houston and Lockheed Martin Space Operations agencies.
In the coming days, Orion will return to shore where technicians will unload the spacecraft and truck it back to Kennedy. Once at Kennedy, the teams will open the hatch and unload several payloads, including Commander Moonikin Campos, space biology experiments, Snoopy, and the official flight kit. The capsule and its heat shield will then undergo testing and analysis over several months.
Artemis I was the first integrated test of NASA’s deep space exploration systems (the Orion spacecraft, the SLS rocket, and supporting ground systems) and was supported by thousands of people throughout the world, of contractors who built the spaceship and the rocket, and the ground. the necessary infrastructure to launch them, to international and university partners, to small companies supplying subsystems and components.
Through Artemismissions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the surface of the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a stepping stone for astronauts on their way to Mars.
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