Artemis II Crew Prepares for Splashdown
The Artemis II crew is set to splash down off the coast of San Diego today, bringing their historic journey around the moon to a close.
NASA has announced that they expect the landing to take place at 5:07 p.m. local time (Pacific Standard Time).
A recovery team from NASA and the U.S. military will assist in rescuing the crew from the Orion spacecraft once it lands in the Pacific Ocean. They will then transfer the astronauts to rubber boats and lift them by helicopter to the USS John P. Murtha, from where they’ll eventually head to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Residents in Southern California may hear or feel a sonic boom as the spacecraft reenters the atmosphere. However, NASA scientists have indicated that a visual of the splashdown is unlikely.
NASA shared details about the reentry process in its Artemis II update blog.
Roughly 30 minutes prior to the splashdown, the crew module of the Orion will separate from its service module and enter Earth’s atmosphere, where the heat shield will be exposed. At this stage, temperatures are expected to reach approximately 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
A burn will be conducted to adjust the approach angle and position the heat shield. At around 400,000 feet, Orion will make initial contact with the upper atmosphere.
Traveling at around 35 times the speed of sound, the crew could experience gravitational forces up to 3.9 Gs as they descend. NASA has planned for a six-minute communication blackout as plasma forms around the capsule.
As the vehicle drops to about 22,000 feet, a drogue parachute will deploy to slow and stabilize its descent. This will be released around 6,000 feet, allowing three main parachutes to open and reduce the speed to under 136 miles per hour.
Once it slows to 20 miles per hour, the capsule will touchdown in the Pacific Ocean, wrapping up its impressive journey of 694,481 miles to the moon and back.
The Crew’s Journey
The Artemis II crew includes NASA astronauts Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. They completed a significant lunar crossing on Monday, marking the first time humans have returned to the moon in over 50 years.
During the mission, they reached a maximum distance from Earth of 252,756 miles, surpassing the record set by Apollo 13 for the farthest human spaceflight.
Throughout their journey, the crew captured images of the moon, conducted scientific observations, and assessed Orion’s systems in deep space. NASA indicates that this mission sets the stage for future operations aimed at landing humans on the moon, establishing a lunar base, and eventually traveling to Mars.
