{"id":11139,"date":"2022-12-12T01:08:43","date_gmt":"2022-12-11T17:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/artemis-1-back-on-earth-after-near-flawless-25-day-moon-mission\/"},"modified":"2022-12-12T01:08:43","modified_gmt":"2022-12-11T17:08:43","slug":"artemis-1-back-on-earth-after-near-flawless-25-day-moon-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/artemis-1-back-on-earth-after-near-flawless-25-day-moon-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemis 1 back on Earth after near-flawless 25-day moon mission"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NASA\u2019s Orion spacecraft descends under three. orange and white main parachutes. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA\u2019s Orion spacecraft parachuted to a gentle splashdown in the Pacific Ocean Sunday west of Baja California, ending an unpiloted test flight to the moon that spanned 25-and-a-half days and 1.4 million miles, proving out a new rocket and capsule to carry astronauts back to Earth\u2019s celestial companion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a defining day,\u201d said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. \u201cIt is one that marks new technology, a whole new breed of astronaut, a vision for the future that captures the DNA of particularly Americans, although we do this as an international venture. And that DNA is we are adventurers, we are explorers, we always have a frontier. And that frontier is now to continue exploring the heavens.\u201d\u2018<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what mission success looks like, folks,\u201d said Mike Sarafin, NASA\u2019s Artemis 1 mission manager. \u201cThis was a challenging mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

The roundtrip journey to the moon began Nov. 16 with the blastoff of NASA\u2019s 322-foot-tall (98-meter) Space Launch System moon rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. On Sunday, the Orion crew capsule streaked back into Earth\u2019s atmosphere at more than 24,400 mph (33,370 kilometers per hour), some 32 times the speed of sound, as temperatures on the moonship\u2019s ablative Avcoat heat shield built up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius).<\/p>\n

Communications signals from the spacecraft were interrupted by the plasma sheath around the capsule as it performed the first of two dips into the atmosphere during a \u201cskip re-entry\u201d to bleed off speed, reduce the g-loads, and provide a lower heating rate for the capsule\u2019s thermal protection system. The skip re-entry also allowed the Orion spacecraft to target a more precise splashdown zone closer to recovery forces.<\/p>\n

The capsule descended just below 200,000 feet (61 kilometers), then climbed again to roughly 294,000 feet (nearly 90 kilometers) before falling back into the atmosphere for the final part of the re-entry. The Orion capsule jettisoned a cover from its parachute compartment, then released drogue chutes and three main parachutes to slow to some 20 mph (32 kilometers per hour) for splashdown at 12:40 p.m. EST (1740 GMT).<\/p>\n

The splashdown occurred 50 years to the day after NASA\u2019s Apollo 17 mission landed in a lunar valley called Taurus-Littrow for a three-day stay. Astronauts haven\u2019t visited the moon since then, but NASA\u2019s Artemis program \u2014 named for the sister of Apollo in Greek mythology \u2014 aims to resume human exploration of the moon later this decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Tranquility Base to Taurus-Littrow to the tranquil waters of the Pacific, the latest chapter of NASA\u2019s journey to the moon comes to a close \u2014 Orion back on Earth,\u201d said Rob Navias, NASA\u2019s commentator for the re-entry and splashdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, the two the main things that had to happen were the heat shield had to work, and it did beautifully,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cAnd then the parachutes had to work, and they did as well.\u201d<\/p>\n