Watch a recap of NASA’s historic Artemis 1 moon mission, from liftoff to splashdown, and relive the excitement all over again.
The first major aim of transporting a human-rated spacecraft to space is demonstrated in the movie, with the unflown Space Launch System successfully launching the Orion spacecraft and sending it on to the moon on November 16.
NASA’s Artemis 1 Finishes Voyage Around The Moon
Following liftoff, the highlight reel follows Orion as it travels for Artemis 1 for 25.5 days to prove it can safely fly in a far retrograde orbit around the moon and return to Earth.
The film concludes with Orion’s last re-entry and splashdown test, which took place on December 11 and featured the sequential deployment of the spacecraft’s 11 parachutes.
Beginning with its launch, the gate-opener mission for the bigger Artemis program captured breathtaking footage of Earth and the moon. Live footage webcast by NASA from deep space gave us all a taste of what it must be like to be an astronaut for a month, complete with moonsets, Earthrises, and a photobombing spacecraft.
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Spacecraft’s Landing
Sunday, December 2, at 12:40 pm EST, Artemis 1 landed in the water. Exactly 50 years after the last Apollo moon landing in 1972, the mission concluded.
The unmanned capsule lifted off from Earth on November 16 and headed for the moon, where it would conduct a battery of tests while in lunar orbit. Greater distance from Earth than any other human-rated spaceship by 268,563 miles.
Jim Geffre, the Orion vehicle integration manager, told CBS, We’ve collected a tremendous amount of data characterizing system performance from the power system, the propulsion, GNC guidance, navigation, and control.
Over 140 gigabytes of engineering and photographic data have been downlinked to the flight control team so far, he said.
Currently, the data is being evaluated to help not just comprehend the performance on Artemis 1 but play ahead for all following missions, as stated by Geffre. The spaceship’s heat shield, which measured 16.5 feet in width, was a cause for concern as landing day approached.
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