The Artemis 1 mission that took place on November 16, after several months of delays, managed to get a rocket to fly along with the Orion capsule, which made a test trip around the Moon.
Artemis 1
To learn a little more about Artemis 1, this is a NASA project, which is that people can return to the Moon very soon. After the last trip that was made in 1972 with Apollo, this project is back after many delays.
The Artemis 1 mission had a planned launch date of August 29, 2022, however, it was canceled as some problems with the engine cooling systems were found. Subsequently, a new launch date was planned for September 3 of the same year, but a liquid hydrogen leak occurred in the central stage and Hurricane Ian also reached Florida, therefore the rocket along with the Orion capsule were sent back to the platform until the day of the final launch.
The Space Launch System rocket, known as Artemis 1, lifted off successfully at 1:47 AM. m. on November 16, with no people on board, only transporting the Orion capsule. After the mission was a success, it is being planned that a new launch can be carried out on a next trip, but this time with people on board on a trip to the Moon. Just in case you want to have a closer experience with the Moon trips, you can run a moon mission from your smartphone.
Result
On December 11 at 9:40 a.m. the Orion spacecraft reached the Pacific Ocean, giving a successful end to the Artemis mission, which was the first test to reach a trip to the Moon. Likewise, it is expected that in the next trip and mission Artemis 2 can have a crew on board and that people can arrive on a trip to the Moon after so many years of waiting.
NASA
We found in a post on a NASA blog, where they tell a little more about how the Artemis 1 mission was like with the journey of the Orion capsule, “during the mission, Orion performed two lunar flybys, coming within 80 miles of the lunar surface. At its farthest distance during the mission, Orion traveled nearly 270,000 miles from our home planet, more than 1,000 times farther than where the International Space Station orbits Earth, to intentionally stress systems before flying crew.” mentions NASA.
There are also more details about the Orion capsule, such as the temperature the capsule was exposed to, as well as the time it took and the speed, “During re-entry, Orion endured temperatures about half as hot as the surface of the Sun at about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.Within about 20 minutes, Orion slowed from nearly 25,000 mph to about 20 mph for its parachute-assisted splashdown.”
The USS Portland recovery teams worked to get to the capsule in the Pacific Ocean and get it out of there, now the space agency is working to bring the Orion capsule back to the Kennedy Space Center, so they can continue the work, research and the process to be able to have the Artemis 2 mission soon and for people to reach the Moon.
Similarly, NASA will evaluate the Orion capsule and heat shield to see how it held up after re-entry to Earth and find out what happened during the trip to the Moon to the capsule structure, as there are various scientific payloads inside of the capsule to verify all this information and have more data.
If you are interested in space, NASA, satellites, rockets and other incredible related things, the following article about STARLINK may interest you.