The Orion capsule carrying the four Artemis II astronauts will reach incredible speeds and temperatures as it splashes down into the Pacific Ocean. Here’s everything you need to know
Nasa’s historic Artemis II mission will come to an end today, Friday, as the four astronauts crash back to Earth after travelling further into space than any human ever has before. The crew are due to splashdown off the coast of San Diego, California, later today.
And the capsule will reach astonishing speeds as it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Thursday, Nasa associate administrator Amit Kshatriya explained what will happen as the crew of three Americans and one Canadian return to Earth.
“Tomorrow the Orion spacecraft will enter the Earth’s atmosphere at approximately 25,000mph,” he said. “That heat shield, the thermal protection system, which is built by American hands and American factories from materials designed to withstand temperatures that approach the surface of the Sun, will bear the full force of that re-entry.
“Every system that we’ve demonstrated over the past nine days – life support, navigation, propulsion, communications, all of it – depends on the final minutes of flight. We have high confidence in the system, in the heat shield, in the parachutes, in the recovery systems we put together.
“The engineering supports it, the Artemis I flight data supports it, all of our ground test supports it, our analysis supports it, and tomorrow the crew is going to put their lives behind that confidence.”
He added there was “no question” the ground team was anxious, but added he had full confidence all the necessary preparations had been made. “It’s impossible to say you don’t have irrational fears left, right? But I would tell you I don’t have any rational fears about what’s going to happen.”
Lakiesha Hawkins, Nasa’s acting deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, said: “When a mission goes well, it can look like flying to the Moon is easy. It certainly is not.
“We can’t forget that this is a test flight, and are taking everything that we’re learning forward to support the next mission. This has been a good mission so far, and we’re nearing the end, having retired a significant number of risks over recent days, but the team remains focused, and we’re making sure that we don’t take our eye off the ball.
“Countless hours of people working together behind the scenes have been preparing for these moments, and people are still giving their all to ensure mission success. We continue to improve, to make our ultimate goals of going to the lunar surface, building the moon base and eventually sending the first humans to Mars, a reality.”
The last time Nasa sent astronauts to the Moon was as part of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The agency is seeking to return a crew to the lunar surface by 2028, before China does in about 2030.
What will happen as Artemis II mission returns to Earth?
The shockwave created as the the capsule re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere will see the air surrounding the craft reach temperatures of 10,000 degrees or higher. The heat shield is just a few inches thick and is designed to burn away, transferring heat away from the capsule.
Communications with mission control will be disrupted as the capsule falls 400,000 feet, with the crew experiencing 3.9Gs, nearly four times normal gravity. Two sets of parachutes will open when it gets closer to landing, with the crew due to splash down in the Pacific at 5.07pm local time, or 1.07am on Saturday morning in the UK.
The time between re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere and landing in the Pacific Ocean will be about 13 minutes. Speaking at the press conference, mission flight director Rick Henfling said: “So it’s going to happen pretty quick.”
He added: “It’s very dynamic. So similarly to the launch environment, there’s not a lot of time to react.” The navy’s USS John P Murtha is currently en-route to meet the capsule when it lands. You can watch the landing live here.
