NASA's Artemis 1 mission has returned to Earth following a successful trip around the moon. On Saturday, at approximately 12:40 PM ET, the uncrewed Orion vessel landed off the coast of Baja, California, after completing a nearly 26-day journey that broke an Apollo flight record and sent back stunning photos of Earth's natural satellite.
Once the US Navy recovers the Orion spacecraft, which is undamaged as proved by the preliminary inspection done via a helicopter; NASA will begin assessing all the data that the spacecraft collected on its 1.4 million-mile journey through space and begin preparing for Artemis II.
Orion, which is a partially reusable crewed spacecraft used in NASA’s Artemis programme.
Featuring solar panels, an automated docking system and glass cockpit interfaces, the Orion spacecraft has a Crew Module (CM) space capsule designed by Lockheed Martin and the European Service Module (ESM) manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space.
The spacecraft gets its record shattering drive from a single AJ10 engine which is the source of the spacecraft's primary propulsion, while eight R-4D-11 engines, and six pods of custom reaction control system engines developed by Airbus, provide the spacecraft's secondary propulsion.
The Orion spacecraft can also bear a crew of six beyond low Earth orbit. It also lasts up to 21 days undocked and up to six months docked.
Orion is mainly intended to launch atop of other launch vehicles, commonly the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
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