NASA’s Orion spacecraft is on its way back to Earth after successfully leaving lunar orbit as part of a 25-day mission.
The uncrewed Artemis I voyage is the first in a series of flights to return humans to the moon by 2025.
It’s been successful so far, but one more crucial test lies ahead, as engineers wait anxiously to see if the capsule’s heat shield will hold up on reentry.
Orion will have to withstand temperatures of 5,000F (2,760C) as it travels at speeds of 24,500 mph before plunging into the Pacific on Dec. 11.
Coming home: NASA’s Orion spacecraft is on its way back to Earth after successfully leaving lunar orbit as part of a 25-day mission
The unmanned Artemis I journey is the first in a series of flights to return humans to the moon by 2025
It’s vital because the next time, on Artemis II, humans will be on board and they’ll have to endure returning at speeds 32 times faster than the speed of sound – equivalent to the fastest a man has ever traveled.
Yesterday, Orion successfully completed a lunar departure burn to head home after successful lunar orbits.
The burning started at 4:54 pm ET (21:54 GMT) and lasted just under two minutes.
“Orion has had a successful and nominally 1 minute and 45 second remote retrograde orbit burn,” NASA said during a broadcast of the maneuver.
The spacecraft had arrived at the moon on Nov. 21 after traveling some 230,000 miles (370,000 km) in five days.
The capsule whizzed over the landing sites of Apollo 11, 12 and 14 as it came within 80 miles (130 km) of the lunar surface.
It flew farther than any spacecraft built for humans ever did — about 40,000 miles (64,000 km) beyond the far side of the moon.
Orion will also stay in space the longest without docking with a space station, returning home faster and hotter than ever before.
If the mission succeeds, the unmanned Artemis I will be followed by a human trip around the moon in 2024 and could lead to the first woman and first person of color following in Neil Armstrong’s footsteps the following year.
The plan is to return human boots to the moon on Artemis III in 2025 and eventually build a permanent outpost on the moon to go deeper into the cosmos so that humans can travel to Mars.
It would be the first time humans have stepped on the moon since 1972.
Artemis I was launched on November 16 at 01:47 ET (06:47 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Splashdown: Orion will have to withstand temperatures of 5,000F (2,760C) as it travels at speeds of 24,500 mph before crashing into the Pacific Ocean on December 11
Artemis I is designed to show that the SLS rocket and Orion capsule are ready to carry astronauts for Artemis II, and eventually for the Artemis III mission to return humans to the moon
Named after the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, Artemis signifies the modern incarnation of the US space agency’s Apollo program, which sent astronauts to the moon for the first time.
This mission has no humans on board, but as long as everything goes smoothly and the Orion capsule splashes back to Earth as planned, the hope is that a crew of four can make a trip around the moon in two years.
Instead of humans, a trio of human-sized test dummies replace the crew in the Orion capsule, their bodies teeming with sensors to measure radiation and vibration.
Sitting in the commander’s seat is Commander Moonikin Campos – a tribute to electrical engineer Arturo Campos, who played a key role in bringing the troubled Apollo 13 mission safely back to Earth in 1970.
Dressed in a new Orion Crew Survival System spacesuit, the mannequin provides NASA scientists with important data about what people experience during a trip to the moon.
Two other mannequins named Helga and Zohar sit in the passenger seats of the Orion. They reflect the determination of the US space agency that a woman will soon be aboard a manned flight to the moon.
The dolls have torsos made of materials that mimic a woman’s softer tissue, organs and bones, and are equipped with some 5,600 sensors and 34 radiation detectors to measure the amount of radiation they encounter during the mission.
One is wearing a radiation protection vest and the other is not.
Artemis I was designed to show that the SLS rocket and Orion capsule are ready to carry astronauts for Artemis II, and eventually for the Artemis III mission to return humans to the moon.
