NASA’s Artemis 1 mission has returned to Earth following a successful trip around the Moon. On Saturday, at approximately 12:40PM ET, the agency’s Orion crew vessel landed off the coast of Baja, California. On its way to the Pacific Ocean, Orion performed what’s known as a skip entry. After entering the Earth’s upper atmosphere, the crew vessel briefly used its own lift to “skip” back out before re-entering for the final descent. In doing so, it became the spacecraft designed to carry humans to carry out such a maneuver.
Getting here wasn’t easy. NASA’s next-generation Space Launch System gave the agency plenty of headaches before it successfully carried Artemis 1 to space on November 16th. NASA spent much of the summer troubleshooting fuel leaks and engine problems. Come fall, Hurricane Ian and later tropical storm Nicole further delayed the launch of Artemis 1, but after all of that was said and done, the SLS produced one of the most memorable rocket launches in recent history. A nighttime flight saw the rocket lit up the Kennedy Space Center.
More broadly, the conclusion of Artemis 1 caps off one of NASA’s most successful years in recent memory.
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