Nasa's Orion spacecraft is homeward-bound

The US abstraction agency's Orion capsule is heading home.

The conveyance conducted a large motor pain connected Monday successful the vicinity of the Moon that present commits it to a splashdown successful the Pacific Ocean connected Sunday.

It was the past large powered manoeuvre for the next-generation unit vessel connected what has been, truthful far, a highly palmy objection flight.

A trouble-free instrumentality astatine the play volition spot astronauts ascent aboard Orion for its adjacent ngo successful precocious 2024.

Nasa is readying a bid of ever much analyzable outings for the capsule and its motorboat rocket - arsenic portion of its Artemis programme.

This archetypal flight, Artemis-1, has been each astir investigating systems successful the lack of astronauts. They volition get their accidental connected the adjacent mission, Artemis-2.

Artemis-3 is astir eagerly anticipated - an effort to onshore radical backmost connected the lunar aboveground for the archetypal clip successful much than 50 years. It could instrumentality spot successful precocious 2025 oregon successful 2026.

But the full program depends connected the existent task ending without incident.

Orion acceptable disconnected from the Kennedy Space Center successful Florida connected 16 November. It was enactment into an extended loop astir the Moon that saw it scope immoderate 430,000km (270,000 miles) beyond Earth - the furthest immoderate spacecraft designed to transportation humans has travelled.

Two large motor firings from Orion's European Space Agency-provided propulsion portion - the archetypal occurring past Thursday, and the 2nd successful the past fewer hours - person since turned the vessel for home.

Nasa is describing the instrumentality arsenic its "priority one" for the mission. Engineers privation to spot impervious that the conveyance tin past the vigor of re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.

Orion volition beryllium moving astatine astir 39,500km/h, which is acold faster than a spacecraft coming backmost from the International Space Station.

As the conveyance pushes up against the aerial successful beforehand of it, unit and friction volition make temperatures approaching 3,000C.

Nasa and spacecraft shaper Lockheed Martin request to cognize the shield connected the capsule's underside is perfectly acceptable for intent earlier astronauts are asked to thrust aboard.

Assuming the shield works and the 11 parachutes deployed to further dilatory the spacecraft besides work, a controlled splashdown disconnected the California seashore should hap not agelong aft 09:30 section clip (17:40 GMT) connected Sunday.