Artemis I leaves lunar orbit and begins 10-day journey back to Earth
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NASA’s Orion spacecraft is on its way back to Earth after successfully leaving lunar orbit as part of a 25-day mission.
The uncrewed Artemis I voyage is the first in a series of flights aimed at returning humans to the moon by 2025.
It has been successful so far, but a vital test still lies ahead as engineers anxiously wait to see if the capsule’s heat shield holds up on re-entry.
Orion will have to withstand temperatures of 5,000F (2,760C) as it travels at speeds of 24,500 mph before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on December 11.
Coming home: NASA’s Orion spacecraft is on its way back to Earth after successfully leaving lunar orbit as part of a 25-day mission
The uncrewed Artemis I voyage is the first in a series of flights aimed at returning humans to the moon by 2025
It is vital because next time around, on Artemis II, people will be on board and they will have to endure returning at speeds 32 times faster than the speed of sound – matching the fastest a human has ever travelled.
Yesterday Orion successfully completed a lunar departure burn to begin heading home after successful moon orbits.
The burn began at 16:54 ET (21:54 GMT) and lasted just under two minutes.
‘Orion has had a successful and nominal, 1 minute and 45 second, distant retrograde orbit departure burn,’ NASA said during a broadcast of the manoeuvre.
The spacecraft had arrived at the moon on November 21 after travelling some 230,000 miles (370,000km) in five days.
The capsule zoomed over the landing sites of Apollo 11, 12 and 14 as it came within 80 miles (130km) of the lunar surface.
It flew farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever done – around 40,000 miles (64,000km) beyond the far side of the moon.
Orion will also stay in space the longest without docking to a space station, and return home faster and hotter than ever before.
If the mission is successful, the uncrewed Artemis I will be followed by a human trip around the moon in 2024 and could lead to the first woman and first person of colour following in Neil Armstrong’s footsteps the year after.
The plan is to return human boots to the moon on Artemis III in 2025 and ultimately build a permanent lunar outpost with a view to exploring deeper into the cosmos so people can travel to Mars.
It would be the first time people have stepped on the moon since 1972.
Artemis I blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 01:47 ET (06:47 GMT) on November 16.
Splashdown: Orion will have to withstand temperatures of 5,000F (2,760C) as it travels at speeds of 24,500 mph before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on December 11
Artemis I is designed to show that the SLS rocket and Orion capsule are ready to carry astronauts for Artemis II, and ultimately the Artemis III mission to return humans to the moon
Named after the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, Artemis signifies the modern incarnation of the US space agency’s Apollo programme, which sent astronauts to the moon for the first time.
This mission has no humans on board, but as long as everything goes smoothly and the Orion capsule splashes down to Earth as planned, then the hope is that a four-person crew can make a trip around the moon in two years’ time.
Instead of humans, a trio of human-sized test dummies are standing in for the crew in the Orion capsule, their bodies swarming with sensors to measure radiation and vibration.
In the commander’s seat is Commander Moonikin Campos — a tribute to electrical engineer Arturo Campos, who played a key role in getting the troubled Apollo 13 mission safely back to Earth in 1970.
Clad in a new Orion Crew Survival System spacesuit, the mannequin is providing NASA scientists with important data on what humans experience during a trip to the moon.
Two other mannequins named Helga and Zohar are sitting in the Orion’s passenger seats. They reflect the US space agency’s determination that a manned flight to the moon will soon include a woman.
The dummies have torsos made of materials that mimic a woman’s softer tissue, organs and bones, and are fitted with some 5,600 sensors and 34 radiation detectors to measure the amount of radiation exposure they encounter during the mission.
One is wearing a radiation protection vest and the other isn’t.
Artemis I is designed to show that the SLS rocket and Orion capsule are ready to carry astronauts for Artemis II, and ultimately the Artemis III mission to return humans to the moon.