NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, west of Baja California, at 9:40 a.m. PST Sunday after a record-breaking mission, traveling more than 1.4 million miles on a path around the Moon and returning safely to Earth, completing the Artemis I flight test.

Splashdown is the final milestone of the Artemis I mission that began with a successful liftoff of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket Nov. 16, from Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Over the course of 25.5 days, NASA tested Orion in the harsh environment of deep space before flying astronauts on Artemis II.

“The splashdown of the Orion spacecraft – which occurred 50 years to the day of the Apollo 17 Moon landing – is the crowning achievement of Artemis I. From the launch of the world’s most powerful rocket to the exceptional journey around the Moon and back to Earth, this flight test is a major step forward in the Artemis Generation of lunar exploration,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “It wouldn’t be possible without the incredible NASA team. For years, thousands of individuals have poured themselves into this mission, which is inspiring the world to work together to reach untouched cosmic shores. Today is a huge win for NASA, the United States, our international partners, and all of humanity.”

During the mission, Orion performed two lunar flybys, coming within 80 miles of the lunar surface. At its farthest distance during the mission, Orion traveled nearly 270,000 miles from our home planet, more than 1,000 times farther than where the International Space Station orbits Earth, to intentionally stress systems before flying crew.

“With Orion safely returned to Earth we can begin to see our next mission on the horizon which will fly crew to the Moon for the first time as a part of the next era of exploration,” said Jim Free, NASA associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. “This begins our path to a regular cadence of missions and a sustained human presence at the Moon for scientific discovery and to prepare for human missions to Mars.”

Prior to entering the Earth’s atmosphere, the crew module separated from its service module, which is the propulsive powerhouse provided by ESA (European Space Agency). During re-entry, Orion endured temperatures about half as hot as the surface of the Sun at about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Within about 20 minutes, Orion slowed from nearly 25,000 mph to about 20 mph for its parachute-assisted splashdown.

During the flight test, Orion stayed in space longer than any spacecraft designed for astronauts has done without docking to a space station. While in a distant lunar orbit, Orion surpassed the record for distance traveled by a spacecraft designed to carry humans, previously set during Apollo 13.

“Orion has returned from the Moon and is safely back on planet Earth,” said Mike Sarafin, Artemis I mission manager. “With splashdown we have successfully operated Orion in the deep space environment, where it exceeded our expectations, and demonstrated that Orion can withstand the extreme conditions of returning through Earth’s atmosphere from lunar velocities.”

Recovery teams are now working to secure Orion for the journey home. NASA leads the interagency landing and recovery team on the USS Portland, which consists of personnel and assets from the U.S. Department of Defense, including Navy amphibious specialists, Space Force weather specialists, and Air Force specialists, as well as engineers and technicians from NASA Kennedy, the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, and Lockheed Martin Space Operations.

In the coming days, Orion will return to shore where technicians will offload the spacecraft and transfer it by truck back to Kennedy. Once at Kennedy, teams will open the hatch and unload several payloads, including Commander Moonikin Campos, the space biology experiments, Snoopy, and the official flight kit. Next, the capsule and its heat shield will undergo testing and analysis over the course of several months.

Artemis I was the first integrated test of NASA’s deep space exploration systems - the Orion spacecraft, SLS rocket, and the supporting ground systems - and was supported by thousands of people around the world, from contractors who built the spacecraft and rocket, and the ground infrastructure needed to launch them, to international and university partners, to small businesses supplying subsystems and components.

Through Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone for astronauts on the way to Mars. 

Quelle: NASA

----

Update: 13.12.2022

.

Artemis I Orion capsule splashes down after 25-day moon mission

NASA's Orion spacecraft splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast the Baja California Peninsula, concluding the Artemis I mission after a 25-day flight around the moon. (NASA/Kim Shiflett)

A NASA spacecraft has landed from the moon for the time since the Apollo missions 50 years ago.
The uncrewed Orion capsule descended to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Guadalupe Island, west of the Baja California Peninsula, on Sunday (Dec. 11). The 12:40 p.m. EST (1740 GMT) landing marked the end of the nearly month-long Artemis I mission, a test flight that was aimed at proving that the Orion is ready to fly with astronauts.
"Splashdown," said Rob Navias, NASA commentator, from inside Mission Control in Houston. "From Tranquility Base to Taurus-Littrow to the tranquil waters of the Pacific, the latest chapter of NASA's journey to the moon comes to a close. Orion back on Earth."
The Orion was launched on Nov. 16 atop the Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket that the United States has flown to date. Nine days later, the spacecraft entered a distant retrograde orbit around the moon, flying further into space than any human-rated vehicle that was designed to return to Earth.
NASA and U.S. Navy teams on the USS Portland, an amphibious transport dock ship, assisted by the littoral combat ship USS Montgomery, were staged near the splashdown point to recover the Orion and transport it to the shore at Naval Base San Diego in California.
"The splashdown of the Orion spacecraft — which occurred 50 years to the day of the Apollo 17 moon landing — is the crowning achievement of Artemis I. This flight test is a major step forward in the Artemis Generation of lunar exploration," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.

Skipping the way home

Unlike the Apollo moon missions, which performed a direct descent into Earth's atmosphere, the Artemis I Orion conducted what is called a "skip entry." The process began at 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT), when the service module provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) separated from the Orion crew module to be discarded over the Pacific Ocean.
Twenty minutes later, the Orion reached "entry interface," encountering the first traces of the upper atmosphere and beginning its first dip back to Earth as it was traveling 25,000 mph (40,000 kph). The spacecraft reached its peak heating of about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius) before using its the lift capability of its capsule design to "skip" back out of the atmosphere, much like a stone skips across a lake.
The skip maneuver lowered the stresses put on the spacecraft and allowed NASA to target a specific landing site, rather than having to stage Navy ships across a wider stretch of the ocean as was done during Apollo.
On its second reentry, the Orion continued down towards the water, deploying its forward bay cover to expose its parachutes at about 35,000 feet (10,700 m). At 12:36 p.m. EST (1736 GMT), two drogue chutes deployed, followed by three pilot chutes and then the three, 116-foot diameter (35-m) mains at about 5,300 feet (1,600 m) two minutes before landing.
Flight controllers then commanded Orion to roll into the proper angle relative to the wind before hitting the water. Once down, the capsule deployed balloons to keep it upright in the ocean.
Continuing mission
NASA still has several more objectives to conduct even though the flight portion of the mission is over. The Orion was expected to stay in the water for two hours, as engineers record how the heat generated during reentry soaks into and affects the spacecraft's interior cabin temperature.
Recovery team members will also monitor the signal from a beacon on the Orion Crew Survival System (OCCS) suit worn by "Commander Moonikin Campos" — an instrumented manikin flown aboard the Orion — to see it can be distinguished from the capsule's own beacon by satellite.
Teams had planned to attempt recovering the main parachutes and forward cover but the hardware sank before it could be reached. Divers will collect above and below water imagery of the condition of Orion's heat shield prior to the spacecraft being brought aboard the Portland. Engineers will continue collecting imagery once the capsule is recovered for use in analyzing the performance of the thermal protection system.
The Orion is expected to arrive back on shore on Monday.
Mission managers reported working only a few problems during the 25-day Artemis I mission, including an unexpected interference by thruster plumes with the Orion's star trackers and an issue with a power control and distribution unit inexplicably shutting off power channels when not commanded to do so. These were minor concerns though, and did not affect the mission achieving its primary goals.
"This has been a phenomenal mission thus far. If you asked me to grade it, I'd give us an A+," Cathy Koerner, NASA's deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, said in a televised NASA interview about two hours before the landing. "It's gone so well that we were actually able to add tests during the mission that helped expand the the envelope that we're going to be able to use to operate the spacecraft once we have crew on board."
Over the next few weeks and months, technicians at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida will unpack Orion of its cargo — including Moonikin Campos, the Artemis I official flight kit and a spacesuited Snoopy doll that served as a zero-g indicator, prior to engineers disassembling the capsule's interior hardware, in part for its reuse. Eight avionics boxes and the seat in which the manikin was strapped in will be re-flown on Artemis II.
As currently planned, the Artemis II mission will launch in late 2024 or in 2025 with a crew of four astronauts to loop around the moon and return to Earth. That flight would then be followed by the return of astronauts to the lunar surface, with Artemis III expected to land the first woman and the next American on the moon at a site still to be chosen in the lunar south pole region.
Ultimately, NASA, together with its international and industry partners, intend to establish a sustainable presence on and around the moon to gain the experience needed before launching the first humans to Mars.

NASA's Artemis I Orion spacecraft is seen after landing on Dec. 11, 2022, with the USS Portland in the distance. (NASA/James Blair)

NASA's Orion spacecraft is seen after splashing down from the 25.5-day Artemis I moon mission on Sunday, Dec. 11, 2022. (NASA/James M. Blair)

NASA’s Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission is recovered inside the well deck of the USS Portland on Dec. 11, 2022. (NASA/Kim Shiflett)

Quelle: CS