NASA will provide live coverage of the Artemis I uncrewed Orion spacecraft’s return to Earth on Sunday, Dec. 11. The agency also will host several
NASA will provide live coverage of the Artemis I uncrewed Orion spacecraft’s return to Earth on Sunday, Dec. 11.
The agency also will host several briefings to discuss the upcoming activities from Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA will provide live coverage on NASA Television, the agency’s website, and the NASA app.
Orion has begun its return trek toward Earth, completing a burn Dec. 1, to exit a lunar orbit thousands of miles beyond the Moon, where engineers have been testing systems to improve understanding of the spacecraft before future missions with astronauts, informed NASA.
Return lunar flyby coverage began at 9 a.m. EST Monday, Dec. 5. The return powered flyby burn, in which the spacecraft harnessed the Moon’s gravity and accelerated back toward Earth, occurred around 11:43 a.m. The spacecraft flew about 79 miles above the lunar surface at 11:42 a.m., just before the burn, informs NASA.
Live coverage as Mission Control, Houston, monitors the spacecraft’s entry, descent, and splashdown off the coast of San Diego will begin at 11 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 11.
Splashdown is expected at 12:40 p.m., after which the exploration ground systems recovery team from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, working with the U.S. Navy, will recover the spacecraft.
NASA also is hosting a STEM event in collaboration with the San Diego Air and Space Museum at 9 a.m. PST Sunday, Dec. 11, for students and families to learn about Orion and the science, technology, engineering, and math that ensures the success of the agency’s missions.
All credit to: NASA.gov
