Artemis 1 was our new mission to the moon. It went around the moon, circled it, and came back to Earth. And now it has successfully landed in the ocean.
“Now mission scientists will examine the capsule for damage, paying close attention to how its heat shield performed on its searing reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, as well as spots where a prelaunch hurricane damaged the capsule’s caulking. When it entered Earth’s atmosphere, Orion was traveling some 40,000 kilometers per hour, but atmospheric drag and massive parachutes quickly slowed it. The resulting friction heated the spacecraft to nearly 2700? Celsius, fully testing Orion’s heat shield’s ability to protect what’s inside the spacecraft.”
This seems a bit like a step backwards to me, we had the space shuttle that landed, and now we are splashing down again. But the fact that NASA is back in the moon game is very exciting!
Artemis 1’s Orion capsule returned safely to Earth. What’s next?
