After a record-breaking mission that saw it travel more than 1.4 million miles on a path around the Moon and safely land back on Earth, NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California at 9:40 a.m. PST on Sunday, concluding the Artemis I flight test.
The Artemis I mission has reached its final checkpoint, splashdown, after a successful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket launch on Nov. 16 from Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Before launching people on Artemis II, NASA tested Orion in the harsh conditions of deep orbit for 25.5 days.
“The pinnacle of Artemis I is the splashdown of the Orion spacecraft, which took place 50 years to the day of the Apollo 17 Moon landing. This flight test is a significant advancement in the Artemis Generation of lunar exploration, according to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, starting with the launch of the most powerful rocket in the world and continuing with the spectacular journey around the Moon and back to Earth. Without the amazing NASA team, it couldn’t be done. To reach unexplored cosmic shores, hundreds of people have dedicated years of their lives to this quest, which is motivating people all over the world to cooperate. Today is a major victory for NASA, the US, our foreign allies, and humanity as a whole.
During the mission, Orion performed two lunar flybys, coming within 80 miles of the lunar surface. At its farthest distance during the mission, Orion traveled nearly 270,000 miles from our home planet, more than 1,000 times farther than where the International Space Station orbits Earth, to intentionally stress systems before flying crew.
“With Orion safely returned to Earth we can begin to see our next mission on the horizon which will fly crew to the Moon for the first time as a part of the next era of exploration,” said Jim Free, NASA associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. “This begins our path to a regular cadence of missions and a sustained human presence at the Moon for scientific discovery and to prepare for human missions to Mars.”
Prior to entering the Earth’s atmosphere, the crew module separated from its service module, which is the propulsive powerhouse provided by ESA (European Space Agency). During re-entry, Orion endured temperatures about half as hot as the surface of the Sun at about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Within about 20 minutes, Orion slowed from nearly 25,000 mph to about 20 mph for its parachute-assisted splashdown.
During the flight test, Orion stayed in space longer than any spacecraft designed for astronauts has done without docking to a space station. While in a distant lunar orbit, Orion surpassed the record for distance traveled by a spacecraft designed to carry humans, previously set during Apollo 13.
“Orion has returned from the Moon and is safely back on planet Earth,” said Mike Sarafin, Artemis I mission manager. “With splashdown 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.”
Recovery teams are now working to secure Orion for the journey home. NASA leads the interagency landing and recovery team on the USS Portland, which consists of personnel and assets from the U.S. Department of Defense, including Navy amphibious specialists, Space Force weather specialists, and Air Force specialists, as well as engineers and technicians from NASA Kennedy, the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, and Lockheed Martin Space Operations.
In the coming days, Orion will return to shore where technicians will offload the spacecraft and transfer it by truck back to Kennedy. Once at Kennedy, teams will open the hatch and unload several payloads, including Commander Moonikin Campos, the space biology experiments, Snoopy, and the official flight kit. Next, the capsule and its heat shield will undergo testing and analysis over the course of several months.
Thousands of people from all over the world contributed to Artemis I, which was the first integrated test of NASA’s deep space exploration systems (the Orion spacecraft, SLS rocket, and the supporting ground systems). These people ranged from contractors who built the spacecraft and rocket as well as the ground infrastructure needed to launch them to partners from other countries and universities to small businesses that supplied subsystems and components.
The first woman and the first person of color will touch down on the Moon through NASA’s Artemis missions, opening the door for a sustained lunar presence and acting as a stepping stone for astronauts traveling to Mars.
