NASA’s Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft has made it again to terra firma.
Orion reached Naval Base San Diego on Tuesday (Dec. 13) aboard the united statesPortland, the U.S. Navy restoration ship that fished the capsule out of the Pacific Ocean on Sunday (Dec. 11) following its successful splashdown.
The spacecraft will likely be offloaded from the Portland on Wednesday (Dec. 14) and can then start an overland trek to NASA’s Kennedy House Middle (KSC) in Florida, KSC officers said via Twitter on Tuesday (opens in new tab).
In pictures: 10 greatest images from NASA’s Artemis 1 mission
That will likely be a homecoming for Orion, which lifted off from KSC atop a Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket on Nov. 16, kicking off the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission.
Every thing went properly on the shakeout cruise; the SLS despatched Orion on its solution to the moon as deliberate, and the capsule checked off all of its desired milestones in deep space.
Orion arrived in lunar orbit on Nov. 25, departed on Dec. 1 and headed for Earth on Dec. 5 by conducting an extended engine burn throughout a detailed flyby of the moon. The spacecraft returned to its residence planet on Sunday, splashing down softly beneath parachutes about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.
As soon as Orion arrives at KSC, Artemis 1 staff members will give it an intensive going-over, assessing how the spacecraft and its many subsystems held up in deep space and the harrowing return journey by means of Earth’s atmosphere.
Technicians may even take away some {hardware} from the capsule for processing and reuse on Artemis 2, the following mission in NASA’s Artemis program of lunar exploration.
Artemis 2 is scheduled to launch astronauts across the moon in 2024. If all goes properly with that flight, Artemis 3 will goal to place boots down close to the lunar south pole a yr or two later, utilizing a SpaceX Starship automobile as a lander.
NASA goals to construct a analysis base within the south polar area, which is believed to harbor plenty of water ice. The company additionally plans to construct a small space station in lunar orbit known as Gateway, which can function a jumping-off level for missions to the floor, each crewed and uncrewed.
The primary elements of Gateway are scheduled to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in late 2024.
Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a ebook concerning the seek for alien life. Observe him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
