For a year has passed since the triumphal return to the land of the Orion spacecraft as part of the Artemis-1 mission. This unmanned flight became an important milestone in the development of a man of the moon and opened a new chapter of manned flights beyond the limits of a low near -Earth orbit.
November 16, 2022, the most powerful launch vehicle in the world Space Launch System (SLS) with Orion capsule started from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This was the first launch for SLS and the second – for Orion after a test flight in 2014.
On November 25, Orion entered the orbit of the moon, where he spent almost a week, after which he began the return trip to the ground. On December 11, the ship entered the dense layers of the atmosphere at a speed of 39,400 km/h. At this stage, the greatest danger was the destruction of the thermal shield due to aerodynamic heating, however, Orion successfully transferred the load.
NASA recently published personnel return of the Orion capsule to the atmosphere of the Earth on December 11, 2022:
After planting, NASA engineers noted that the process of destroying the heat-protective coating did not go exactly as computer models and ground tests predicted. Part of the charred material was separated before the calculated time. However, in general, thermal protection worked successfully.
Now NASA is preparing for the mission of Artemide 2, the first manned flight as part of the Artemis program. Like “Artemis 1”, it will use SLS and Orion. The upcoming mission will send four astronauts – the Wayman raid, Viktor Glover and Christina Koch from NASA, as well as Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency – around the moon and back to the ground.
“Artemis 2” is scheduled for 2024