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NASA’s Orion spacecraft prepares for blazing return to Earth

After a final buzz by the Moon, the Artemis I mission faces its biggest challenge: coming home.
  1. Alexandra Witze
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Over the past three weeks, NASA’s Orion capsule has flown to the Moon and most of the way back, in a near-flawless test of a new spaceship. It now faces its biggest challenge since launching atop a massive rocket as part of the Artemis I mission — surviving a fiery re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on 11 December. In the process, it will test a re-entry manoeuvre that has never been used by a passenger spacecraft.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-04369-x

Updates & Corrections

  • Update 09 December 2022: This story was updated to reflect that, owing to inclement weather, Orion will splash down off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, rather than San Diego, California.

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