After spending just over 25 days in space and orbiting the Moon, the spacecraft Orion NASA landed in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, successfully ending the Artemis 1 test mission tasked with preparing for the return of humans to the Moon in the coming years.
The landing took place off the Mexican island of Guadalupe at 9:40 a.m. (12:40 p.m. Montreal time).
“For years, thousands of people have devoted themselves to this mission,” said the boss of the American space agency, Bill Nelson, in a press release. “Today marks a great achievement for NASA, the United States, our international partners, and all of humanity. »
The capsule, which did not have an astronaut on board, entered the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 40,000 km / h and had to endure a hellish heat of 2800 ° C, half the temperature of the surface. of the Sun.
The main objective of the mission was to test the capsule’s heat shield, the largest ever built (5 m in diameter), under these conditions.
The spacecraft was first slowed down in its vertiginous descent by the atmosphere, then by a series of no less than eleven parachutes, until it reached a speed of around 30 km/h when it hit the water.
“We had an absolutely perfect landing,” said Melissa Jones, recovery operations manager, which NASA has been training for years.
Soon after, helicopters flew over the spacecraft, which showed no apparent damage. Orion had to be left in the water for two hours, much longer than if astronauts were on board, in order to collect data – in particular on the heat induced inside the capsule.
Then divers will attach cables to it in order to tow it using inflatable boats to the interior of a US Navy ship, the USS Portland, whose rear will be partly submerged. The water will then be pumped, allowing the capsule to be slowly deposited on a support provided for this purpose.
Operations were expected to take four to six hours from the time of landing.
The USS Portland will then take the road to San Diego, on the American West Coast, where the capsule will be landed in the coming days.
2.2 million kilometers
The success of this mission was crucial for NASA, which has invested tens of billions of dollars in the American return to the moon program, Artemis. After humans return to the lunar surface, his goal is to prepare for a future trip to Mars.
In 2014, a first test of the capsule had been carried out, but it had not then left Earth orbit, and had therefore entered the atmosphere more slowly (around 32,000 km/h).
In total, the spacecraft has this time traveled more than 2.2 million kilometers in space, since its takeoff on November 16 during the first flight of NASA’s new mega-rocket, SLS.
Orion flew past the Moon some 130 kilometers from its surface, and ventured over 430,000 km from our planet, farther than any previously habitable spacecraft.
Recovering the capsule will allow the collection of a lot of decisive data for the following missions. First by detailing the state of the ship after its trip, but also by analyzing the recordings of sensors of the accelerations and vibrations undergone on board, or the performance of an anti-radiation jacket.
Some elements of the ship must also be reused for the Artemis 2 capsule, which is already well advanced.
This second mission, scheduled for 2024, will take a crew to the Moon, still without landing there. NASA should announce the names of the chosen astronauts very soon.
Artemis 3, officially scheduled for 2025, will land for the first time on the South Pole of the Moon, where there is water in the form of ice.