NASA’s Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft returning home.
uninhabited Orion spacecraft Successfully completed burn on departure to the Moon on Thursday (December 1) to begin returning home after success the moon orbits. The burn began at 4:54 p.m. EDT (2154 GMT) and lasted less than two minutes, according to NASA TV commentator Shaniqua Viren.
Viren announced during the agency’s broadcast of the burn that “Orion has succeeded, 1 minute and 45 seconds, in the successful retrograde orbit burn.” The spacecraft’s solar panels can be seen gently swaying back and forth on a live NASA TV broadcast as “tiny a landglowing in the background.
Orion is now beginning its ten-day journey home. If all goes according to plan, the capsule will splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on December 11th. NASA and the US Navy have already begun training for the recovery operation that will mark the end of the Artemis 1 mission.
Live updates: NASA’s Artemis 1 lunar mission
Orion was launched on top of NASA’s massive giant Space launch system (SLS) is on fire on November 16, kicking off the space agency’s long-awaited Artemis 1 lunar mission.
The mission is the first in the agency’s Artemis program, which aims to establish a sustainable manned lunar base near the moon’s south pole by the end of the decade.
The first Artemis mission was a test of both the SLS and Orion spacecraft to ensure that both were airworthy and safe to carry human crews into deep space. If Artemis 1 goes as planned, the next mission, Artemis 2will launch astronauts into lunar orbit in 2024. NASA will then return the astronauts to the moon no later than 2025 with Artemis 3.
So far, Artemis 1 has met its standards, according to NASA. Mission managers announced on Wednesday (November 30) that November 16 launch of the SLS Show the car Implemented exactly as intended.
“The first launch of the Space Launch System rocket was amazing,” said Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager. “While our mission with Orion is still ongoing and we continue to learn over the course of our flight, the missile systems perform as designed and as expected in each case,” he added.
Pictures: Stunning views of the emergence of NASA’s Artemis 1 moon rocket
Meanwhile, Orion also performed admirably by all indications. A major milestone, bringing the spacecraft into a far retrograde orbit around the Moon, It was achieved on November 25th.
With the burn today, Orion now has a long, lonely ride home that she’ll no doubt send home Great photos and shots As she has throughout her journey so far.
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