| The Orion spacecraft is on its return trek toward Earth, completing a burn Dec. 1 to harness the Moon’s gravity and accelerate toward home after flying thousands of miles beyond the Moon, while engineers continue to test systems to improve understanding of how the spacecraft will operate on future crewed missions. Live coverage of the spacecraft’s entry, descent, and splashdown off the coast of San Diego will begin at 11 a.m. EST Sunday, Dec. 11, on NASA TV. Splashdown is expected at 12:39 p.m., after which the exploration ground systems recovery team from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, working with the U.S. Navy, will recover the spacecraft. Following a successful launch on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, Artemis I is testing the Orion spacecraft on a rigorous mission in the extreme environment of deep space around the Moon before flying astronauts on Artemis II in 2024. Artemis includes a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration at the Moon where the agency will prepare for future missions with crew to Mars. |
Is our galaxy on an Orion’s belt?
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