The splashdown concludes the first phase of NASA’s three-part mission to return humans to the moon for the first time in 50 years.
NASA’s Orion capsule splashed down into the Pacific Ocean on Sunday after launching from Earth and orbiting the moon, marking the completion of the Artemis I mission, which intends to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in 50 years.... [+]
blisteringly fast return Sunday, Dec. 11, 2022, parachuting into the Pacific off Mexico to conclude a dramatic 25-day test flight. The mission should clear the way for astronauts on the program’s next lunar flyby, set for 2024. The Orion capsule, launched last month from the most powerful rocket to leave Earth, parachuted into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California’s Baja Peninsula at 12:40 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, where it was expected to be recovered by the U.S. Navy’s USS Portland.
NASA’s Mission Control Houston called Sunday’s feat a “textbook landing” and said the spacecraft was recovered in “stable and good shape” with all five parachutes inflated, during a live broadcast of the descent following its 1.4 million-mile mission. The crewless mission spent 25 days in space, reaching a distance of about 268,000 miles from Earth and 40,000 miles from the moon, breaking the record for the farthest distance traveled by a spacecraft equipped to carry humans set by the Apollo 13 mission in 1970.
NASA launched Orion atop its new Space Launch System from a launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on November 16, following months of delays due to Hurricane Nicole and technical difficulties. Orion’s landing on Sunday marks the completion of NASA’s first phase of a mission aimed at developing a long-term presence on the lunar surface, and eventually, Mars.24,600 miles per hour. That’s the speed Orion logged as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on Sunday.
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