After NASA’s Orion spacecraft’s ninth flight day ended with thrusters igniting during the journey back to Earth, four astronauts were on the 10th and last day of the Artemis II mission.
The crew and spacecraft will perform a third burn shortly after 1:50 p.m. on Friday. The re-entry procedures will follow, as a U.S. Navy ship awaits in the Pacific Ocean.
If all goes as planned, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere at 23,840 mph in self-flying Orion’s capsule, Integrity, which has a shield to withstand the high heat.
NASA expects Integrity to slow down to a 19 mph splashdown shortly after at 8:05 p.m. on Friday off the coast of San Diego. The USS John P. Murtha and crew will be doing the pickup.
NASA plans to celebrate the Artemis II astronauts as the first human crew in history to have ever flown 252,756 miles from Earth. Wiseman will return to his family after having named newly discovered moon craters after his late wife, Carroll, who died of cancer.
The program will continue to make improvements for Artemis III around the Earth’s orbit in 2027, and an actual moon landing with Artemis IV in 2028.
Interactive graphic
Related stories
