This Friday, Artemis II successfully completed its mission to return humans to lunar orbit for the first time since 1972.with the departure of the Orion capsule of its four astronauts, in apparent good condition and amidst applause from the control center in Houston, after ten historic days and without major mishaps.
“The United States has once again sent astronauts to the Moon and brought them back safely”said Jared Isaacman, NASA administrator, after the splashdown, about this test mission of the powerful SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft.
Good weather accompanied the most diverse crew that arrived in lunar orbit last Monday after a trouble-free liftoff on April 1 from Cape Canaveral (Florida), conditions that were repeated this Friday in the Pacific, off the coast of San Diego (California), where the capsule dove.
Victorious, the first woman to orbit the Moon arrived on Earth. Christina Koch; the first African American person, Victor Gloverand the first non-American to accompany a NASA mission, the Canadian Jeremy Hansen.
NASA Commander Reid Wiseman completed this mission, which comes to an end with a host of historical milestones accomplished and that will give impetus to the next missions of the Artemis Program which seeks to land on the moon twice in 2028, as well as orbit the Earth in 2027, while the US space agency simultaneously advances plans to build a base on the Moon.
The crew surpassed the distance record achieved in space by the Apollo 13 mission in 1970 and set a new mark by moving 406,771 kilometers from Earth.
Likewise, it tested human life support for the first time in a ship when passing over the far side of the Moon.which included a communications blackout for 40 minutes and also rewarded them with an eclipse lasting more than 50 minutes, which allowed them to make other types of observations.
NASA indicated that it must now analyze the abundant graphic material collected and the observations made, which will serve as a basis to guide future missions of the Artemis program.
During the expedition, Wiseman starred in one of the most emotional moments, when his companions named a lunar crater observed for the first time by humans ‘Carroll’, in honor of his deceased wife.
A jar of Nutella – sweet hazelnut and cocoa cream – floating during the live broadcast, along with the clogged toilet and the bad smells that the astronauts had to endure, marked the funniest and, at the same time, most unpleasant moments of the mission.
This Friday the astronauts concluded a journey with significant risksfrom takeoff – which could have compromised the rest of the operation – to re-entry, especially since it was the first crew test of the Artemis II heat shield.
This armor managed to protect the crew from the high temperatures generated by friction during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, which were estimated from 1,650 degrees Celsius (3,000 Fahrenheit) to about 2,760 degrees Celsius (5,000 Fahrenheit).
This heat was generated by entering the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed close to 40,000 kilometers per hour (about 24,661 miles per hour), with a deceleration that reached up to four times the force of gravity.
The recovery of the astronauts was carried out by the US armed forces and NASA personnel, who transferred them to an inflatable platform.
From there, they were scheduled to be evacuated by helicopter and transferred to the infirmary of a ship. where they will continue with medical evaluationsbefore being transferred to land for further examinations.
“We are returning to the Moon. We do it to stay,” said Isaacman, who went to accompany the rescue of the astronauts in the Pacific.
“We are going to master the skills on the lunar surface so that one day we can undertake missions to Mars. It is an incredibly exciting time. And we are not going alone: we are taking everyone with us,” Isaacman added. (YO)
