ESA Squeezes Orion Capsule’s 25-Day Journey In A Minute

Photo Credit: NASA

The European Space Agency (ESA) has released a new one-minute cinematic video that showcases the 25-day journey of the Artemis I mission. The video does a great job of knitting together the Orion capsule’s key moments while also showcasing some of the breathtaking imagery captured by the spacecraft during its flyby of the Moon.

The uncrewed Artemis I mission was a test flight for NASA’s latest Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft that will ferry astronauts to the Moon in future missions. ESA designed Orion’s service module that is meant to supply electricity, air, and propulsion to the capsule.

Orion Successfully Returns Home

During the lunar flyby, the spacecraft came within just 80 miles of the Moon’s surface, and also set the record for traveling the farthest distance (268,553 miles) from Earth than any other human-rated spacecraft. The previous record was set by the Apollo mission in 1970.

The Orion capsule made a successful splashdown on Earth on December 11. It also means all of the capsule’s hardware performed as intended, though NASA engineers are now extracting data from the spacecraft to confirm if all of the capsule’s systems worked efficiently during the mission.

“Orion has returned from the moon and is safely back on planet Earth,” said Mike Sarafin, Artemis I mission manager. “With splashdown, we have successfully operated Orion in the deep space environment, where it exceeded our expectations, and demonstrated that Orion can withstand the extreme conditions of returning through Earth’s atmosphere from lunar velocities.”

NASA’s Moon Ambitions Taking Shape

If NASA engineers conclude that everything functioned precisely, the marquee space agency will start planning the Artemis II mission, which will see the spacecraft take the same route in the lunar orbit, only this time with astronauts aboard.

Artemis II mission could happen in 2024, and it will be followed by the highly-anticipated Artemis II mission, which will see the first woman and first person of color set foot on the lunar surface. This will mark the first time since the final Apollo mission in 1972 that an astronaut will set foot on the Moon.

But NASA’s Moon ambitions don’t end there. The space agency eventually plans to set up a permanent lunar base where astronauts can live and carry out science experiments for extended periods. The lunar base could also facilitate the launch of the first crewed mission to Mars, which NASA believes could happen sometime in the 2030s.