After successfully rounding the Moon, NASA’s Artemis II crew — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen — have begun their return journey to Earth, having travelled farther into space than any astronauts in history.
Here’s a look at some top update and what happens next:
The finale to NASA’s celebrated 10-day mission is expected to begin with the separation of Orion’s crew capsule from its service module, followed by a fiery re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere, and a six-minute radio blackout before the capsule parachutes into the sea.
Artemis 2’s Orion will enter Earth’s atmosphere at a steeper angle than originally planned, in order to reduce the time spent moving through the atmosphere at high velocity and temperature, and hopefully reduce the chances of damage, Space.com reported.
As Orion descends, it will be engulfed in a blazing plasma fireball outside the window hatches. “The descent will be rough and tumble, and for a short time communications with ground control will be cut off by the plasma envelope around the capsule.”
At about 26,500 feet above the Pacific Ocean, Orion will still be racing down at 325 mph. Pyrotechnics will deploy three small forward-bay-cover parachutes. Then, at 25,000 feet, two larger drogue chutes will open to stabilize the capsule. At 9,500 feet, with speed reduced to 130 mph, the main parachute sequence will begin.
“The main parachutes have a more complicated system. First, three pilot chutes will release, each 11 feet (3.4 m) in diameter, and these pilot chutes will pull out the three mains, which are a huge 116 feet (35.3 m) wide, each weighing 310 lbs (140 kilograms), with the Orion crew module dangling 265 feet (81 m) beneath them.”
If all goes well, the astronauts will end up bobbing safely in the ocean aboard their Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, shortly after 8 pm ET (0000 GMT) off the coast of San Diego.
NASA has reported that the team is halfway home.
The Artemis II astronauts have reached the “halfway” mark between the Moon and the Earth. They will splash down in the Pacific Ocean around 8:07 pm ET on Friday, 10 April (0007 UTC on Saturday, 11 April), off the coast of San Diego.
After their splashdown, the US Navy’s USS John P Murtha (LPD 26) would retrieve the crew and the Orion spacecraft, as per the US Indo-Pacific Command.
Senator Ted Cruz hailed the accomplishment of the astronauts and said that they have inspired a whole new generation of space explorers.
The Artemis II mission has set a new record for the farthest distance travelled by humans from Earth, surpassing the Apollo 13 mission’s record of 248,655 miles. Artemis II is NASA’s first crewed test flight in the Artemis campaign.
