NASA’s Artemis II — the first crewed lunar mission in more than half a century — is headed back to Earth after completing its historic trip around the moon.
The four-member crew — NASA commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian space agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen — left the so-called lunar sphere of influence on Tuesday afternoon and returned to Earth’s gravitational pull.
The 10-day mission is due to conclude on Friday, when Artemis II makes its reentry before a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.
During Monday’s seven-hour lunar flyby, the Artemis II astronauts set a new record for the farthest distance from Earth traveled by humans — 252,756 miles, surpassing the previous mark set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
They took photos and made observations from the Orion spacecraft, dubbed Integrity. The crew members became part of that elite group of humans who have ever witnessed an “Earthrise” as they cleared the far side of the moon. They also saw a solar eclipse from space.
On Tuesday, NASA released stunning new images of the Earth and moon captured by the crew.
“Humans probably have not evolved to see what we’re seeing,” Glover said. “It is truly hard to describe.
During a press conference on Wednesday, NASA officials in charge of planning the Orion spacecraft’s reentry gave new details on what to expect as the crew makes its way back to Earth for a planned splashdown off the California coast.
According to Rick Henfling, Artemis II entry flight director, the first critical step of reentry will be separating the module containing the crew from the rest of the spacecraft. The crew module will then travel on its own into the Earth’s atmosphere at an altitude of about 400,000 feet.
“That’s when the fun really begins,” Henfling said.
Shortly after the module reaches the atmosphere, NASA will lose its ability to track it for roughly six minutes as it continues to plummet toward the Earth. That blackout period will end well before it’s time to deploy the module’s parachutes, which will happen in two stages. The first will slow it down to about 200 mph. The second main set of parachutes will reduce its speed to just 20 mph by the time it lands in the ocean.
Orion is expected to make its splashdown off the coast of San Diego, where the crew will be recovered by a joint NASA and U.S. military team stationed on the USS John P. Murtha.
