Overview
- Orion is coasting on a free-return path that uses the Moon’s gravity to bring the crew back to Earth, with splashdown planned near San Diego on Friday night.
- NASA projects a maximum reentry speed of about 10,657 meters per second, which would fall short of Apollo 10’s 11,094 m/s record.
- The crew made the first-ever radio call between a Moon-bound spacecraft and the International Space Station, speaking across roughly 370,000 kilometers.
- Following Monday’s record-setting flyby at 406,778 kilometers from Earth, NASA released images showing Earth setting behind the Moon and a total solar eclipse seen from Orion.
- NASA acknowledged a toilet venting fault that forced the crew to use a backup bag, and engineers are preparing a fix for future missions.