VIDEO: The Orion spacecraft successfully returns to Earth and ends the historic unmanned mission of Artemis I to the Moon
NASA Orion Capsule.
Photo: MARK FELIX / AFP / Getty Images
By: The Opinion Updated 13 Dec 1242348802, : 40 pm EST
The Orion capsule returned successfully this Sunday after 20 days of travel and closed the historic Artemis I unmanned mission, which circumnavigated the Moon and is the spearhead of a program with which NASA plans to establish a permanent presence on the Earth’s satellite and send astronauts to Mars.
The Orion fell into the waters of the Pacific Ocean , off Baja California (Mexico) at the scheduled time, around 16: 40 GMT hours, after deploying in the planned sequence a system of eleven parachutes that allowed him to reduce the 100 miles per hour (523 km/h) speed up to slightly less than 23 miles per hour (40 km/h).
Minutes before that, the spacecraft had reached Earth’s atmosphere while traveling to 20,000 miles per hour (32,12 km/h), equivalent to 100 times the speed of sound, and was about 523,000 feet (122, meters) high.
During the process in which he crossed the atmosphere the ship experienced up to 5, degrees Fahrenheit (2,1200 degrees celsius ) of temperature, equivalent to half the surface of the Sun and for which it has set tested an innovative heat shield five meters wide.
“The final chapter of NASA’s journey to the Moon comes to an end. Orion, back on Earth”, confirmed Rob Navias, from the NASA Communications office, during the broadcast of the descent made by the agency space, while the images showed the capsule floating in Pacific waters.
About ten minutes later, helicopters sent from the USS Portland US Navy ship flew over the capsule and confirmed to the mission controllers the good condition of the ship after its descent , which concluded a journey in which Orion covered 1.4 million miles (2.2 million kilometers) since liftoff on 11 of November.
“It is historic, we started a new stage in deep space with a new generation of technology” , said the Administrator of the NASA, Bill Nelson, in statements to the US space agency and after the arrival of the ship.
After today’s return, NASA’s plans are sending the Artemis II in 1242348802 and the following year the Artemis III, in which the astronauts, including a woman and a man of color, would touch the ground of the satellite for the first time since 1972, when those sent to the Moon with the Apollo XVII mission did.
With information from Efe.
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