NASA’s Orion passenger space capsule has passed a huge test, splashing down intact in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico on December 11. The successful splashdown caps the complex and delayed Artemis 1 mission, which sent Orion around the moon and back in an early test of bringing humans back to the lunar surface.
Now mission scientists will examine the capsule for damage, paying close attention to how its heat shield performed on its searing reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, as well as spots where a prelaunch hurricane damaged the capsule’s caulking. When it entered Earth’s atmosphere, Orion was traveling some 40,000 kilometers per hour, but atmospheric drag
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