On December 11, 2022, the Orion capsule plunged into the ocean off the coast of California. This completes the Artemis I mission and brings us one step closer to returning humans to the moon.
NASA’s Artemis I mission succeeded. On Dec. 11, the Orion capsule crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. That makes it 26 days journey to the moon and back came to a successful conclusion.
The capsule was launched into space on November 16 on the colossal SLS rocket. That launch was already a momentous event: it was preceded by years of delays, massive budget overruns, and a barrage of last-minute technical glitches.
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Bounce entry
The landing was at least as memorable a moment. The plane flew into the atmosphere at a speed of more than 32,000 kilometers per hour. As a result, the heat shield reached a temperature of 2760 degrees Celsius.
Orion then did not plunge directly into the sea, but made a so-called skip entry (‘bounce entry’). That’s a maneuver somewhat similar to how a stone bounces across a pond. When the capsule reached an altitude of about 61 kilometers, it turned upside down, so that its center of gravity suddenly shifted. As a result, it shot up about 30 kilometers, almost all the way back into space, before making its final descent.
The reason for this maneuver was threefold: it allowed the operators to more precisely determine the landing site, it reduced the pressure on the heat shield, and it reduced the maximum g-forces on the ship by more than 40 percent. All of this will ultimately make future Orion landings easier and safer for traveling astronauts.
Artemis II and III
Everything seems to have gone well with the splash down. According to NASA director Bill Nelson this was ‘the ultimate test before we put astronauts on board’. Now NASA engineers will review the landing data to confirm that the capsule — specifically its heat shield — held up well. If so, NASA can be confident that the astronauts on the Artemis II mission will be as safe as possible.
Artemis II, scheduled for 2024, should be SLS’s first crewed launch and Orion’s first crewed flight. Four astronauts will travel around the moon and back in about ten days. They will then perform a test of the pod’s life support systems.
Artemis III, the flagship mission of the Artemis program, is scheduled for 2025 when NASA will land two astronauts, including the first woman to walk on the moon. The astronauts will stay there for just over six days, while two other astronauts will continue to orbit the moon in the spaceship.
In total, the mission will last about thirty days. This will be the first time anyone has set foot on the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. Artemis III will set the tone for NASA’s grand lunar plans. These include a permanent space station in lunar orbit, and a permanent base on the surface.