SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – NASA's test flight to the moon ended Sunday with the successful splash-down of the Orion Space Capsule.
Scientists will be poring over sensors on the spacecraft to see if humans can go on the next flight.
The capsule traveled more than 1.4 million miles on a path around the Moon according to a NASA press release, before completing the Artemis 1 flight test by splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.
One of the biggest tests of the uncrewed space capsule was its reentry, as its heat shield reached 5,000 degrees.
"If you look at that big rock out on the launch pad and millions of pounds of explosive fuels pushing that to orbit," said Eric Berger, the senior space editor at Ars Technica, a technology and science-based news site.
"When it comes back to earth it's got to bleed off all of that energy in less than 20 minutes," he said.
It's clear Orion has passed that reentry test, with a new heat shield using blocks of an epoxy resin. It was successfully burned away while keeping the temperature inside the capsule at about 70 degrees.
This was an essential step in moving forward with the Artemis 1 mission. The capsule launched on Nov. 16, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and orbited for a little over 25 days.
The goal of the Artemis 1 mission is to return humans to the moon with a more sustainable lunar program compared to Apollo, which was expensive.
"It's too early to say whether that’s going to be successful," said Berger. "The mission we saw take place over the last month was a really important first step."
NASA hopes to launch humans on Artemis 2 sometime in 2024. The Orion Capsule is currently being recovered and returned to Florida for study.
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