NASA’s 25-day Artemis 1 mission came to a successful close on Sunday (Dec. 11) with a splashdown off Mexico’s Baja California coast at 9:40 A.M. Pacific Time.
The splashdown, which took place on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 17 Moon landing, marked the end of the uncrewed Orion capsule’s journey to lunar orbit, which saw it travel a total of about 1.4 million miles (2.25 million kilometers).
The crew-rated capsule was sent to space atop NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) during the rocket’s first-ever launch on Nov. 16. The SLS rocket is the most powerful launch system now available. But the rocket’s first launch had been delayed several times during the summer and fall due to weather and technical issues. Once its engines finally ignited, however, SLS performed flawlessly, lofting the Orion capsule and European Service Module to the Moon.
Apart from minor anomalies, such as an unexpected loss of communication for 47 minutes on flight day eight, Artemis 1 appears to have passed with flying colors. Still, NASA and contractors will continue sifting through data and examining Orion as the days and weeks unfold.
The Orion capsule safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 11 (Sunday), 2022. Skip to 1:40:48 for splashdown. NASA
Artemis 1: Uncrewed Orion orbits the Moon
During the mission, the uncrewed Orion capsule entered lunar orbit, carried out two flybys of the Moon — swooping as low as 80 miles (130 km) above the pockmarked landscape — and set a record for the farthest a human-rated craft has ever been from Earth, some 270,000 miles (434,000 km). Orion also stayed in space longer than any other crew-rated spacecraft that didn’t dock with the International Space Station (ISS).
In a NASA statement, Artemis 1 mission manager, Mike Sarafin, said that “we have successfully operated Orion in the deep space environment, where it exceeded our expectations, and demonstrated that Orion can withstand the extreme conditions of returning through Earth’s atmosphere from lunar velocities.”
Orion raced toward Earth at about 25,000 mph (40,000 km/h), carrying out one brief atmospheric “skip maneuver” to help it obtain an optimal trajectory before plunging into Earth’s air. Orion then deployed three huge red-and-white parachutes, which gracefully slowed the capsule to a speed of about 20 mph (32 km/h) for splashdown.
The Orion capsule was tended to by a Navy recovery team from the U.S.S. Portland, which loaded the capsule on board once technicians in the water ensured various systems were safe.
The spacecraft is now on its way to a U.S. Navy base in San Diego. After that, it will return to Kennedy Space Center, where personnel will offload space biology tests and mannequins that measured radiation exposure. NASA will also prioritize inspection of Orion’s heat shield, as it withstood temperatures of more than 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2760 degrees Celsius) during reentry.
