NASA’s Artemis I Moon Mission Landing: How to Watch - The New York Times

Science|NASA’s Artemis I Moon Mission to End successful Water Landing: How to Watch

And connected the 26th day, the satellite capsule returned to Earth.

During the aboriginal hours of Nov. 16, NASA launched a elephantine rocket toward the moon. The rocket reached orbit and sent a tiny capsule, this clip with nary astronauts connected board, connected its mode to the moon. This was the opening of Artemis I, a ngo to trial NASA’s quality to instrumentality astronauts to the satellite 50 years aft it past accomplished that feat.

On Sunday, Artemis I volition travel to an extremity erstwhile that conveyance splashes backmost down successful the Pacific Ocean.

How to ticker the splashdown.

The splashdown is expected 12:40 p.m. Eastern time. NASA Television volition statesman streaming sum of the instrumentality astatine 11 a.m. Eastern clip connected Sunday, oregon you tin ticker connected a video subordinate we volition supply here. In the video subordinate supra you tin presumption occasional unrecorded video from the Orion capsule successful abstraction until NASA’s sum of the splashdown begins.

NASA volition clasp a quality league astatine 3:30 p.m. Eastern clip aft the splashdown.

Why NASA sent Orion to the moon.

The superior extremity of Artemis I was a important shakedown of NASA’s caller abstraction hardware, including Orion, a spacecraft for carrying astronauts to heavy space, including lunar orbit. Orion is unoccupied this time, but it volition instrumentality astronauts to the satellite successful the coming years.

During its astir monthlong travel to and from the moon, Orion got wrong 80 miles of the lunar surface. It besides extended its orbit tens of thousands of miles from the moon. If each goes good connected Sunday, the ngo volition implicit its astir important objective: proving that the spacecraft tin safely re-enter Earth’s ambiance connected the mode backmost from the moon, and past splashing down nether parachutes successful the Pacific Ocean to the westbound of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.

What happens during the instrumentality to Earth.

The Orion spacecraft volition execute what NASA calls a skip re-entry. During the skip re-entry, the capsule volition participate the precocious atmosphere, oriented astatine an space wherever the capsule generates capable aerodynamic assistance to bounce backmost up retired of the atmosphere. It volition past re-enter a 2nd time. It’s astir similar throwing a stone that bounces disconnected the aboveground of a pond earlier sinking. The maneuver allows much precise steering toward a landing tract person to the coast.

Why NASA is going backmost to the moon.

NASA officials reason that the satellite missions are cardinal to its quality spaceflight program — not simply a do-over of the Apollo satellite landings from 1969 to 1972.

“It’s a aboriginal wherever NASA volition onshore the archetypal pistillate and the archetypal idiosyncratic of colour connected the moon,” Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, said during a quality league earlier this year. “And connected these progressively analyzable missions, astronauts volition unrecorded and enactment successful heavy abstraction and volition make the subject and exertion to nonstop the archetypal humans to Mars.”

For scientists, the renewed absorption connected the satellite promises a bonanza of caller information successful the coming years. There is simply a peculiar involvement successful the magnitude of h2o crystal connected the moon, which could beryllium utilized for astronauts’ h2o and oxygen supplies successful the aboriginal and could supply substance for missions deeper into space.