NASA ’ s Orion Spacecraft Splashes Down in Triumphant End to Lunar Mission

NASA picked a very good morning to return from the moon. It was 50 years ago today that the crew of Apollo 17 landed in the Taurus Littrow Valley on the lunar surface, where they planted the last of six flags Apollo crews would leave behind to mark their moments in history. Today, the space agency planted a new, if symbolic flag, when the Artemis 1 mission’s Orion crew capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean 320 km (200 mi.) off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, at 9:40 a.m. Pacific Time. The safe return marked the end of a 25-day lunar orbital mission, proving the flight-worthiness of the Orion spacecraft, which is expected to carry a crew of astronauts on a circumlunar journey during Artemis 2, in 2024. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “Splashdown,” NASA tweeted, seconds after the spacecraft hit the water. “After traveling 1.4 million miles through space, orbiting the Moon, and collecting data that will prepare us to send astronauts on future #Artemis missions, the @NASA_Orion spacecraft is home. The recovery of Orion was expected to be smooth and without incident—“nominal,” as NASA puts these things. The Navy’s USS Portland was in the splashdown site—just 8 km (5 mi.) away; after the capsule hit the water, a five-hour process got underway in which a recovery team left the ship aboard small boats, headed for Orion. There, the plan calls for them to attach cables to the spacecraft and tow it back to the...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news