Orion Spacecraft Coming Home by Kale Cunningham
After a successful unmanned flight test, NASA’s Orion spacecraft is coming back to Earth.
Orion is part of a mission known as Artemis 1, which is the first mission in the Artemis program. Artemis is a multi-billion dollar program with a goal of landing humans back on the surface of the moon by 2025. Orion is the spacecraft with a goal of carrying astronauts to the moon. The spacecraft doesn’t land but orbits the moon instead. Artemis 1 was launched on November 16 to orbit the moon, which it did from November 24- December 1.
The mission has been a complete success, NASA officials say that Orion is only experiencing small glitches and has functioned flawlessly on its 25 day test flight.
Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C., made a statement saying, "We talked through that today, as a mission management team, and the spacecraft is fine. There's plenty of redundancy on the vehicle."
Orion is set to land in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, December 11, at 11 a.m.
To watch the landing live click here!