After about four weeks in space, the unmanned Orion-Capsule of the Nasa lunar mission Artemis 1 back on earth. The capsule landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico on Sunday evening, as shown in live images from the US space agency Nasa. With the help of specialists, divers and boats Orion now be brought to the port of San Diego.
The test mission is considered an important step in getting humans back on the moon. Even before landing, Nasa boss Bill Nelson had artemistest mission described as an “extraordinary success”. With the program, named after the Greek goddess of the moon, US astronauts are to land on the moon again in the coming years, including for the first time a woman and a non-white person. On a first manned flight (Artemis 2) around the moon another manned flight including moon landing (Artemis 3) follow. NASA had the last humans to date in 1972 with the Apollo 17-Mission brought to the moon. Overall, the USA was the only country to date to bring the Apollo-Missions between 1969 and 1972 twelve astronauts on the moon.
was started Artemis 1 – after cost increases and repeated postponements – on November 16th with the “Space Launch System” rocket from the Cape Canaveral cosmodrome in the US state of Florida. For about four weeks, all the planned tasks could then be ticked off: flyby the moon, swing into orbit of the moon, swing out of orbit of the moon, flyby another moon – and now the landing. The European Space Agency Esa and space agencies from several other countries are also on board artemis involved.