Photo by NASA Johnson on Flickr.com
It has been reported that the Orion spacecraft, named after the Greek Moon goddess “Artemis” by the US National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA), landed in the ocean off the coast of Mexico.
The US National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) has released a statement stating that the Orion crew module, called Artemis I, has completed its 25-day uncrewed test flight, by landing in the Pacific Ocean off the Mexican coast.
Orion has landed on Earth
In the statement, it was stated that the crew module of the Orion spacecraft successfully separated from the transport module at 11:00 local time, the transport module burned safely in the atmosphere, and the crew module also entered the atmosphere.
Stating that the module descends accurately and consistently by increasing and decreasing its altitude in the atmosphere using the “bounce technique”, it was stated that “When Orion encounters the atmosphere, the enormous heat generated turns the air surrounding the capsule into plasma, which disrupts the communication with the spacecraft for a short time.”
As part of the Artemis I mission, the Orion spacecraft has traveled about 1.3 million miles (2 million kilometers), carrying the crew capsule to the furthest point it has ever been in orbit around the Moon.
Orion has placed 6 satellites in orbit of the Moon
One purpose of this flight, which is a kind of test mission, was to deploy 10 small satellites to and from the Moon orbit of the service module under Orion, 4 of these satellites failed to be deployed, and 6 of them were successfully placed in lunar orbit.
NASA launched the Orion spacecraft on November 16 from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
With the success of the Artemis I mission, NASA will now examine the data collected from this flight and try to select a crew for the Artemis II mission, which can take off in 2024.
Artemis II will aim to send astronauts into a similar orbit as Artemis I, flying around the moon and landing on its surface.
Landing on the Moon with the Artemis III mission
In this direction, it is aimed that astronauts will set foot on the Moon again with the Artemis III mission, which is planned to be launched in 2025.
According to the news of AA, Orion had reached its closest position to the surface in the orbit of the Moon with an altitude of 128 kilometers.
It is stated that the design, construction, testing, and ground facilities of the Orion spacecraft have cost NASA at least $37 billion so far.
Named after the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, NASA aims to establish a lunar colony for longer-term journeys that could send humans to Mars, as well as a return to the Moon.
