It has been 50 years old for the day after the last time an American lunar ferry reached the surface of the moon, the Artemis-I mission has ended with the picture book landing of the Orion capsule in the Pacific off the Mexican coast. For almost 26 days, Orion has been around in space since the start on November 16, circulated the moon twice and flew further than any other for the transport of people built. It was a "historical day," said the head of the American space agency, Bill Nelson, proudly in the live stream. Because the test mission is an important step for the return of people to the moon, with the long -term goal of a trip to Mars.
The spectacular live images on NASA TV first showed how Orion was moving towards Earth at breakneck speed. In the meantime, the capsule reached a speed of a good 40,000 kilometers per hour and was exposed to a temperature of 2760 degrees Celsius. Within 20 minutes, Orion slowed down his speed to just under 30 kilometers per hour, braked by parachutes, and then landed reasonably gently in the sea.
Splashdown. After traveling 1.4 million miles through Space, Orbiting the Moon, and Collecting Data That Will Prepare Us to Send Astronauts On Future #Artemis Missions, The @Sa_orion SpaceCRAFT IS HOME. pic.twitter.com/orxctga9v7
The German astronaut Alexander Gerst celebrated the successful landing on Twitter: "A historic moment & milestone of space travel. Humanity once again has a spaceship that can carry people beyond Earth orbit into space to explore the Moon & Mars," he wrote. And Philippe Deloo, who is responsible for the European mission contribution as program manager, told NASA TV: "I am the happiest person in the world at the moment about the successful performance of the European service module.«
The ESM is a mission -critical component that is mainly developed and assembled in Bremen. It is the kitchen, the bathroom, the pantry and the energy center of the Orion capsule in one. It contains the main engine and supplies the electricity via four solar sails, and it also regulates the climate and temperature in the spaceship and stores fuel, oxygen and water supplies for the crew. In an interview with the head of the German space agency, Walther Pelzer, shortly after the start: "The fact that the United States rely on us in the Artemis program is an enormous evidence of trust in the performance of European space nations." Shortly before entering the earth's atmosphere Had the ESM brought the Orion capsule on course with a last thrust before it was decoupled and burned in the atmosphere.
In the coming days, Orion will return on land, where technology teams will unload the spacecraft and bring back to Kennedy Space Center by truck. Once there, the teams will open the hatch and unload the valuable freight, including Commander Moonikin Campos, the space biological experiments, Snoopy and the official flight equipment. Then the capsule and their heat shield are tested and analyzed over several months.
Now the goal is to learn from further lunar missions to explore the cosmos, said NASA chief Nelson. At the end of the 2030s, they wanted to go to Mars with people – "and then even further out". Unlike the US going it alone 50 years ago, this is now also a "great day" for NASA's international partners, Nelson stressed. The European Space Agency ESA and space agencies of several other countries, including Germany, are involved in "Artemis".
