Artemis II astronauts prepare for re-entry, splashdown near San Diego after historic moon flyby
Artemis II astronauts are preparing for re-entry and splashdown Friday near San Diego following a historic 10-mission flying by the moon.
Artemis II crew will soon make high-temp re-entry to earth's atmosphere
While the Artemis II crew have already successfully flown around the moon and broken the all-time record for traveling the farthest distance from earth, their Orion spacecraft will soon make a blazing hot descent through the earth's atmosphere during re-entry before splashdown on Friday night.
A heat shield allows for this high-temperature re-entry, but the Artemis I Orion spacecraft's uncrewed flight around the moon in 2022 lead to issues with the heat shield.
"Engineers determined as Orion was returning from its uncrewed mission around the Moon, gases generated inside the heat shield’s ablative outer material called Avcoat were not able to vent and dissipate as expected. This allowed pressure to build up and cracking to occur, causing some charred material to break off in several locations," NASA noted in 2024.
But NASA associate administator Amit Kshatriya said during a Thursday news conference ahead of the Artemis II crew's Friday splashdown that there is "high confidence" regarding the heat shield and that "tomorrow the crew's gonna put their lives behind that confidence."
NASA says Artemis II re-entry, splashdown involves '13 minutes of things that have to go right'
The spacecraft returning from traveling around the moon is slated to splash down around 8:07 p.m. off the San Diego coast, according to NASA --- but a lot needs to happen in the final minutes of the flight before the Artemis II crew can finally breathe a big sigh of relief and disembark.
At a press conference on Thursday, Artemis II lead flight director Jeff Radigan detailed 13 crucial minutes from entry interface to splashdown.
"It's 13 minutes of things that have to go right is the way I think about it," he said. "I have a whole checklist in my head that we, you know, were going through of all the things that have to happen, you know, the forward bay cover has to come off, the drogues have to come out, the main chutes have to deploy, the reefing systems have to cut, and we have to get touch down angle alignment correct. And, and then hit the water correctly."
"And even prior to that, we have the CM/SM Sep, separation between the service module and the crew module," he added. "That has to go right. And then you have the heat shield that has to work. So it's not so much 13 minutes. It's more in my head about an hour and a half of things that have to go right."
A Thursday post on NASA's website explains what will happen in the leadup to the splashdown.
"During re-entry, the service module will separate around 7:33 p.m., about 20 minutes before Orion reaches the upper atmosphere southeast of Hawaii. At 7:37 p.m., a final trajectory‑adjustment burn will fine‑tune the flight path before the spacecraft begins a series of roll maneuvers to safely distance itself from departing hardware. Orion will reach its maximum velocity — approximately 23,864 mph — just before entry interface," the post notes.
"As Orion descends through about 400,000 feet, the spacecraft will enter a planned six‑minute communications blackout at 7:53 p.m. as plasma forms around the capsule during peak heating. The crew is expected to experience up to 3.9 Gs in a nominal landing profile," according to NASA. "After emerging from blackout, Orion will jettison its forward bay cover, deploy its drogue parachutes near 22,000 feet at 8:03 p.m., and then unfurl its three main parachutes around 6,000 feet at 8:04 p.m. to slow the capsule for splashdown off the coast of San Diego."
Artemis II crew set to splashdown off the San Diego coast on Friday night
After flying around the moon and setting the record for the farthest distance ever traveled from earth during their historic mission, the Artemis II crew is slated to splashdown on Friday night.
“NASA is targeting splashdown at 8:07 p.m. (5:07 p.m. PDT) Friday, April 10, off the coast of San Diego,” NASA has noted.
“At 10:53 p.m. EDT, the Orion spacecraft ignited its thrusters for 9 seconds, producing an acceleration in velocity of 5.3 feet-per-second and pushing the Artemis II crew toward Earth,” NASA explained. “The third return trajectory correction burn is scheduled for April 10 at about 1:53 p.m. ahead of re-entry procedures.”
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