Posted on 12/12/2022 1:25:50 PM PST by texas booster
The Orion spacecraft has been secured in the well deck of the USS Portland. The ship will soon begin its trip back to U.S. Naval Base San Diego, where engineers will remove Orion from the ship in preparation for transport back to Kennedy Space Center in Florida for post-flight analysis.
Upon Orion’s successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California at 9:40 PST/12:40 EST Dec. 11, flight controllers in mission control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston spent about two hours performing tests in open water to gather additional data about the spacecraft, including on its thermal properties after enduring the searing heat of re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere. Recovery personnel also spent time collecting detailed imagery of the spacecraft before beginning to pull the capsule into the USS Portland’s well deck.
The recovery process involved divers attaching a cable called a winch line and several additional tending lines attached to the crew module. The winch was used to pull Orion into a specially designed cradle inside the ship’s well deck and the other lines were used to control the motion of the spacecraft. The recovery team consists of personnel and assets from the U.S. Department of Defense, including Navy amphibious specialists and Space Force weather specialists, and engineers and technicians from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Johnson Space Center in Houston, and Lockheed Martin Space Operations.
At 12:40 p.m. EST, Dec. 11, 2022, NASA’s Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after a 25.5 day mission to the Moon. Orion will be recovered by NASA’s Landing and Recovery team, U.S. Navy and Department of Defense partners aboard the USS Portland.
Credit: NASA/James M. Blair
AT SEA, PACIFIC OCEAN – DECEMBER 11: NASA’s Orion Capsule is drawn to the well deck of the U.S.S. Portland after it splashed down following a successful uncrewed Artemis I Moon Mission on December 11, 2022 seen from aboard the U.S.S. Portland in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California, Mexico. A 26-day mission took the Orion spacecraft to the moon and back which completed a historic test flight that coincided with the 50th anniversary of the landing of Apollo 17 on the moon, the last time that NASA astronauts walked there. Mario Tama/Pool via REUTERS
Is this the first unmanned spacecraft to visit the moon and return to earth?
Looks like a horrible case of polyps. What exactly was the Space Force doing up there?
NASA’s Orion capsule makes its way towards the U.S.S. Portland (LPD 27) after being successfully secured by a NASA and U.S. Navy team, off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, 11 December 2022. CAROLINE BREHMAN/Pool via REUTERS
Crew members gather after NASA’s Orion Capsule was brought into the well deck of the U.S.S. Portland, after it splashed down following a successful uncrewed Artemis I Moon Mission, seen from aboard the U.S.S. Portland in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California, Mexico December 11, 2022. Mario Tama/Pool via REUTERS
Pretty sure yes, and that’s the idea behind this test flight.
In all fairness, Apollo 13 was probably the first to circle the moon and come back to Earth.
Did the 16UmpTeeners send this up? You know, the people of color who made America “great” while the honkies sat around drinking iced tea and Lemonade.
As a 6 year old, I was awakened middle of the night to see Sputnik fly over. Ever since, I’ve been a space junkie.
Space-X could probably do this for billions less, still, Orion is pretty cool!
Yea but there is some kind of pride knowing that you are going to the moon and beyond in craft built by the lowest bid contractors. 😑
very bad case of roids
NASA --> The success of earlier Apollo flights, problems in the development of the lunar module and concerns that the Soviet Union might be ready to launch astronauts around the Moon led NASA to change the flight plan for the Apollo 8 mission from an unpiloted, Earth-orbiting mission to a crewed flight around the Moon.Many of us remember that reading from Genesis from the moon like it was yesterday. That was absolutely the most thrilling thing ever, especially in the midst of the space race with Russia, the threat of nuclear war, and only 23 years after WW II ended. It also helped bring the nation together after the horrible race riots of the few previous years.Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders were the first crew to fly atop the powerful Saturn V booster, ultimately spending 20 hours orbiting the Moon. On Christmas Eve, 1968, the crew gave a memorable reading from the Book of Genesis, and while in orbit Anders took the iconic "Earthrise" photo.
Crew:
Frank Borman, commander
William A. Anders, lunar module pilot
James A. Lovell Jr., command module pilotLaunch: Dec. 21, 1968
Splashdown: Dec. 27, 1968
Lowest bid to a set spec... know your government contracting.
Apollo 2.0
I’ve been disappointed in trying to track this project.
I cannot find one place on the web with a map and live tracking info. This was common place with the Apollo stuff, but not Artemis.
“Looks like a horrible case of polyps. “
Martian graffiti.
Apollo 8 circled the Moon and returned to Earth, but with a crew.
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