NASA can catch its breath. After 25 days of travel, half of which around the Moon, the Orion spacecraft made its big dive into the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, December 11, 2022. The device arrived in the water right on time, c i.e. at 6:40 p.m. (French time).
The return to Earth of the capsule confirms the historic success of the Artemis I mission, the eventful first opus of a trilogy supposed to allow humanity to install a permanent base on the Moon. It will serve as a relay point for more distant exploration missions, in particular the planet Mars. “We had an absolutely perfect landing”welcomed Melissa Jones, in charge of the recovery of the vessel.
Unprecedented maneuvers
During this spectacular outcome, which you can watch again on video thanks to our dedicated article, the very ambitious US aerospace agency was able to test a new method of entering the atmosphere, called skip entry.
After separating from its service module designed by ESA, NASA’s European counterpart, the spacecraft pierced Earth’s skies by first bouncing off the atmosphere, which allowed it to reduce its speed . Because the speed of fall of the space capsule was also unprecedented: 39,590 km/h, or 24 times that of a rifle bullet.
A system of 11 parachutes then slowed its descent before Orion came to rest in the ocean at just 30 km/h. As it floated to the surface, a team of NASA engineers, military and Space Force personnel were able to retrieve it and board it aboard theUSS Portlanda US Navy vessel.
And then ?
The shuttle will land at Naval Base San Diego on Tuesday, December 13. It will then go to the Kennedy Space Center where it will be analyzed by the engineers on site. This splashdown concludes NASA’s unmanned Artemis I mission, which consisted of sending Orion into orbit around the Moon, then returning it while conducting various tests to prepare for the next one.
Scheduled for 2024 at best, Artemis II will be the first manned trip around the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. On the other hand, astronauts will not set foot on the ground of our natural satellite. To see the return of Man to the Moon, we will have to wait for the Artemis III mission in 2026/2027 at the earliest.