Listen to this article
Average 4 minutes
The audio version of this article was created by AI-based technology. It can be mispronounced. We are working with our partners to continuously review and improve the results.
Artemis II’s mission will end in just a few hours.
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen on their Orion spacecraft – named Integrity – had the ride of a lifetime as they orbited the moon, the longest distance ever.
But now, they are going back terra firma.
All four are expected to land in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, Calif., today at 8:07 pm ET.
The return to Earth is miserable, as they reach a speed of almost 40,000 kilometers per hour, the temperature of their capsule is 3,000 C.
Now imagine how that might sound.
Their bodies will be going through about 4 Gs. That means they will feel four times heavier than usual. It’s like being crushed.
In a press conference on Wednesday evening, Glover said it all: “Riding a fireball into space is deep, too. I will think and talk about all these things for the rest of my life.”
Indeed.
But before we get to that point, a lot will happen before these four set foot on solid ground.
‘That’s when the fun really begins’
The European Space Agency’s European Space Module was providing power to Orion. That requires separation before re-entry, which happens about 20 minutes before it starts.
Then there’s the crew module that boosts the burn to fine-tune Orion’s trajectory. Orion will then conduct several maneuvers that will take it away from the service module.
The astronauts, who will be wearing their space suits, will put their visors down. This spacecraft will be about 16,000 kilometers from where you landed.
“That’s where the fun really begins,” Artemis II combat director Rick Henfling said at a press conference Wednesday.
As the capsule re-enters Earth’s atmosphere, the plasma that has formed around the spacecraft will prevent any communication between NASA’s ground control and the astronauts. This is expected to take about six minutes. That’s what they call LOS, or loss of signal.
“When that six-minute blackout is complete, Orion will be at about 150,000 feet. [45,720 m]. So, we’re falling fast,” Henfling said. “We have two parachutes to deploy. It will be about 22,000 feet [6,705 m]. That will slow us down to about 200 miles per hour [322 km/h].”
The team resists that build-up of heat thanks to a heat shield called Avcoat.
However, after Artemis I’s failed mission, NASA engineers noticed that one of the props had ruptured as gas could not escape and accumulated causing the propellant to split apart.
Although NASA did not replace Artemis II’s heat shield, it did investigate and change re-entry procedures.
At a distance of 1,800 meters, three large parachutes will deploy and slow the spacecraft down to just 32 km/h, to splash down from San Diego.
The entire sequence of events will last only 14 minutes.
After the shooting
The astronauts will be met by the USS John P. Murtha, which departed days before the expected landing.
“After confirming that the area is safe, they will proceed to open the Orion hatch and help the astronauts move from their seats to the large inflatable raft we call the front porch,” said Liliana Villarreal, Artemis II’s landing and recovery director, at a Wednesday press conference.
“Once all four astronauts are on the front porch, we’ll take the capsule off the front porch, and the crew will wait…. Two helicopters will circle, pick up all four crew members before returning to the recovery ship in a few minutes.”
If all goes according to plan, Koch will go first, followed by Glover, Hansen and then Reid.
After the medical examination the astronauts will return to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
But there is also all the science they have collected.
Some of that will be sent to the space station immediately, while the rest will take time to collect.
