Slamming into the atmosphere at more than 30 times the speed of sound, NASA’s Orion spacecraft blazed a trail over the Pacific Ocean on Friday, returning home with four astronauts and safely capping humanity’s first voyage to the Moon in nearly 54 years.
Temperatures outside the capsule built up to some 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit as a sheath of plasma enveloped the Orion spacecraft, named Integrity, and its four long-distance travelers, temporarily blocking radio signals the Moon ship and Mission Control in Houston. Flying southwest to northeast, the spacecraft steered toward a splashdown zone southwest of San Diego, where a US Navy recovery ship held position to await the crew’s homecoming. Ground teams regained communications with Orion commander Reid Wiseman after a six-minute blackout.
Airborne tracking planes beamed live video of Orion’s descent back to Mission Control, showing the capsule jettison its parachute cover and deploy a series of chutes to stabilize its plunge toward the Pacific. Then, three larger main chutes, each with an area of 10,500 square feet, opened to slow Orion for splashdown at 8:07 pm EDT Friday (00:07 UTC Saturday).
In just 14 minutes, Orion bled off nearly 25,000 mph of velocity, subjecting the crew strapped into their seats to two brief periods of about 3.9 Gs.
The USS John P. Murtha amphibious transport dock ship dispatched helicopters and small boats to begin extracting Wiseman and his Artemis II crewmates: Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen. Wiseman reported “four green crew members” inside the cockpit of the Orion spacecraft, confirming good health and high spirits after splashdown.
Koch exited the capsule first, joining Navy divers on an inflatable raft, or “front porch,” assembled next to the spacecraft. Glover was next, then Hansen, a Canadian astronaut, stepped out of Orion onto the front porch. Wiseman, the captain of the ship, was last to leave his seat and join the recovery team. Two helicopters were expected to hoist the astronauts from the sea and fly them them to the John P. Murtha, where they were to undergo medical checks before traveling to San Diego, then back to Houston for a reunion with their families Saturday.