The world woke up to some amazing news: All four astronauts who participated in NASA’s ten-day Artemis II mission to the moon, which took them further into space than any human before, returned safely to Earth, crashing within a kilometer of their intended landing in the Pacific Ocean, according to NASA.
Re-entry
The first major point of concern came from re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, which CNN described as the most dangerous part of the mission.
In a blog post before landing, NASA reporters Abby Graf and Joseph Zakrzewski described the challenges of reentry, starting with the structural integrity of the spacecraft itself.
Traveling at more than 40,000 kilometers per hour (40,000 km/h), the spacecraft compresses the air in front of it, creating a fireball of plasma with temperatures as high as 2,700 Celsius or 4,892 Fahrenheit, about half the temperature of the sun above Earth.
Meanwhile, inside the ship, crew members experience a rapid deceleration as the gravity increases, making them feel four times heavier than they would on Earth, according to former astronaut Chris Hadfield.
I NASA’s live broadcast of the return of Artemis IIwhich was watched by more than 20 million people worldwide, it reached a critical point on re-entry, when the extreme heat for six minutes made all communication with the team impossible, leaving not only the control of the machines but also the spectators holding their breath.
It was Commander Reid Wiseman’s voice that broke the silence: “Houston, Integrity here. We hear it loud and clear,” the BBC reported.
Splashdown: Where did Artemis live?
After communications were re-established and the excitement of the NASA crew died down, all that was left was to stick to the area: 2,000 miles southwest of the coast of San Diego, in the Pacific Ocean.
In order to slow down the ship and make sure it stays in a safe place, the Orion landing capsule used a series of parachutes of four different designs, used in an extremely precise sequence for maximum efficiency, described in this NASA brochure.
Mashable Light Speed
When the last parachutes were deployed, the small capsule containing the crew had gone too low, ending up in the ocean, captured by CNN.
Splashdown occurred shortly after 5 pm PT, hailed as “a complete bull’s eye for Integrity and its four astronauts” by NASA analyst Rob Navias, while a marine rescue mission removed four astronauts from the floating capsule before flying by helicopter to the USS John P Murtha official report by Jennifer Dooren.
How to view Artemis II
Interested in reliving the amazing journey, or maybe you missed most of the action and want to see it for the first time? You can watch the full broadcast of the entire mission, including interviews with the crew, on NASA’s official YouTube page.
For more drama, however, see the recorded live stream below.
Or if you don’t have many hours of free time to spare, check out our photo summary of sprinkles put together by Chris Taylor.
What’s next after Artemis II
The mission’s success, and its undeniable global appeal, has both NASA and other space agencies thinking about the stars, but there are practical things to do first.
The crew, described in the rescue ship by NASA director Jared Isaacman as “ambassadors of humanity,” have not appeared in public since this morning as cameras captured their spectacular exit, and are expected to take several days to recover from their 10-day journey above our atmosphere.
Before R&R, however, the astronauts were expected to face one more test: an obstacle course. As Mashable reporter Elisha Sauers explains, battery tests, performed inside and outside of their heavy spacesuits, will be used to study the body’s adaptation to long-term weightlessness.
But what about the future of space travel?
By some accounts, the Artemis II mission was the first manned mission into deep space in more than 50 years, but NASA also sees it as the first step in a new, decade-long project to establish a permanent space station.
According to NASA writer Lauren E. Low, future plans include landing people on the moon and establishing a permanent lunar base, exploring rendezvous and landing capabilities with SpaceX and Blue Origin lunar landers at some point in 2027, and finally establishing the necessary conditions for a crewed trip to Mars.
For now, however, the world is breathing a collective sigh of relief, happy to welcome the good news of the crew’s safe return.
Mashable’s Elisha Sauers reported and Chris Taylor contributed to this article.
