NASA / ESA - Orion Crew Vehicle patch.
Dec 8, 2022
On flight day 23 of NASA’s Artemis I mission, the Orion spacecraft continues making the return trip to Earth, capturing photos and video along the way.
“At present, we are on track to have a fully successful mission with some bonus objectives that we’ve achieved along the way,” said Mike Sarafin, Artemis I mission manager. “On entry day, we will realize our priority one objective, which is to demonstrate the vehicle at lunar re-entry conditions, as well as our priority three objective, which is to retrieve the spacecraft.”
Image above: (Dec. 7, 2022) The Moon appears smaller from Orion’s perspective on flight day 22 as the Artemis I spacecraft continues distancing itself from our lunar neighbor, over 125,000 miles away in this image. Image Credit: NASA.
The mission management team met with the entry flight director and NASA recovery director as the planned splashdown of Orion Sunday, Dec. 11 is now about 72 hours away. They evaluated the weather and decided on a landing site in the Pacific Ocean near Guadalupe Island, south of the primary landing area. Watch the reentry preview briefing for more details.
Later tonight, flight controllers will conduct a final survey of Orion’s crew module and service module using cameras on each of the spacecraft’s four solar arrays. During the crew module inspection, flight controllers will be looking at the back shell made up of 1,300 thermal protection system tiles and will protect the spacecraft from the cold of space and the extreme heat of re-entry.
Just before re-entry, the crew module and service module will separate and only the crew module will return to Earth while the service module burns up in Earth’s atmosphere upon re-entry over the Pacific Ocean. The Artemis I trajectory is designed to ensure any remaining parts do not pose a hazard to land, people, or shipping lanes.
After separating from the service module, the crew module will prepare to perform a skip entry technique that enables the spacecraft to accurately and consistently splash down at the selected landing site. Orion will dip into the upper part of Earth’s atmosphere and use that atmosphere, along with the lift of the capsule, to skip back out of the atmosphere, then reenter for final descent under parachutes and splash down. This technique will allow a safe re-entry for future Artemis missions regardless of when and where they return from the Moon.
Orion capsule separation from European Service Module. Animation Credit: ESA
Earth’s atmosphere initially will slow the spacecraft to 325 mph, then the parachutes will slow Orion to a splashdown speed in about 10 minutes as it descends through Earth’s atmosphere. Parachute deployment begins at an altitude of about five miles with three small parachutes pulling the forward bay covers away. Once the forward bay cover separates, two drogue parachutes will slow and stabilize the crew module for main parachute deployment. At an altitude of 9,500 feet and a spacecraft speed of 130 mph, three pilot parachutes will lift and deploy the main parachutes. Those 116-foot-diameter parachutes of nylon broadcloth, or “silk,” will slow the Orion crew module to a splashdown speed of 20 mph or less.
The parachute system includes 11 parachutes made of 36,000 square feet of canopy material. The canopy is attached to the top of the spacecraft with more than 13 miles of Kevlar lines that are deployed in series using cannon-like mortars and pyrotechnic thrusters and bolt cutters. Learn more about Orion’s parachute system in the Artemis I reference guide.
NASA TV coverage of Artemis I’s return to Earth begins at 11 a.m. EST on Sunday, Dec. 11. The Orion spacecraft is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:40 p.m. near Guadalupe Island.
Just before 6:00 p.m. CST on Dec. 8, Orion was traveling 207,200 miles from Earth and 180,400 miles from the Moon, cruising at 1,415 mph.
Related articles:
Artemis I Flight Day 22 – Orion Continues on its Journey Back to Earth
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/12/artemis-i-flight-day-22-orion-continues.html
Artemis I – Flight Day 21: Orion Leaves Lunar Sphere of Influence, Heads for Home
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/12/artemis-i-flight-day-21-orion-leaves.html
Artemis I – Flight Day 20: Orion Conducts Return Powered Flyby
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/12/artemis-i-flight-day-20-orion-conducts.html
Artemis lunar flyby: Orion is coming home
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/12/artemis-lunar-flyby-orion-is-coming-home.html
Artemis I – Flight Day 19: Orion Prepares for Close Lunar Flyby, Teams Examining Power Conditioning Issue
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/12/artemis-i-flight-day-19-orion-prepares.html
Artemis I Flight Day 18 – Orion Re-enters Lunar Sphere of Influence
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/12/artemis-i-flight-day-18-orion-re-enters.html
Flight Day 17 - Orion Fine-tunes Trajectory, Downlinks Data, Continues Test Objectives
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/12/flight-day-17-orion-fine-tunes.html
Artemis I Flight Day 16 – Orion Successfully Completes Distant Retrograde Departure Burn
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/12/artemis-i-flight-day-16-orion.html
Artemis I Flight Day 15 – Team Polls “Go” For Distant Retrograde Orbit Departure
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/11/artemis-i-flight-day-15-team-polls-go.html
Artemis I — I Flight Day 14: Deep Space Testing Continues
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/11/artemis-i-i-flight-day-14-deep-space.html
Artemis I — Flight Day 13: Orion Goes the (Max) Distance
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/11/artemis-i-flight-day-13-orion-goes-max.html
Artemis I – Flight Day 12: Orion Star Trackers, Reaction Control Thrusters Tested
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/11/artemis-i-flight-day-12-orion-star.html
Artemis I enters Moon orbit
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/11/artemis-i-enters-moon-orbit.html
Artemis I – Flight Day 11: Orion Surpasses Apollo 13 Record Distance from Earth
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/11/artemis-i-flight-day-11-orion-surpasses.html
Flight Day 10: Orion Enters Distant Retrograde Orbit
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/11/flight-day-10-orion-enters-distant.html
Artemis I – Flight Day Nine: Orion One Day Away from Distant Retrograde Insertion
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/11/artemis-i-flight-day-nine-orion-one-day.html
Latest Updates from Artemis I
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/11/latest-updates-from-artemis-i.html
Artemis I – Flight Day Six: Orion Performs Lunar Flyby, Closest Outbound Approach
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/11/artemis-i-flight-day-six-orion-performs.html
Artemis powering past the Moon
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/11/artemis-powering-past-moon.html
Orion Successfully Completes Lunar Flyby, Re-acquires Signal with Earth
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/11/orion-successfully-completes-lunar.html
Artemis I – Flight Day Four: Testing WiFi Signals, Radiator System, GO for Outbound Powered Flyby
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/11/artemis-i-flight-day-four-testing-wifi.html
NASA’s Artemis I Cameras to Offer New Views of Orion, Earth, Moon
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/11/nasas-artemis-i-cameras-to-offer-new.html
Artemis I Liftoff! 50 years after Apollo 17, Orion on Its Way to the Moon
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/11/artemis-i-liftoff-50-years-after-apollo.html
Related links:
Artemis I reference guide: https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis-i/img/Artemis%20I%20Reference%20Guide_Inter.pdf
Artemis II mission: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-first-flight-with-crew-important-step-on-long-term-return-to-the-moon-missions-to/
Callisto: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/callisto-technology-demonstration-to-fly-aboard-orion-for-artemis-i/
Track Orion: https://www.nasa.gov/trackartemis
Artemis I: https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-1
Orion spacecraft (ESA): https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Orion
Orion Spacecraft (NASA): https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/index.html
Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
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