Overview
- Orion, which splashed down Friday off California, wrapped a 10-day lunar mission with four astronauts from the United States and Canada under NASA’s Artemis program.
- The spacecraft reached about 406,771 kilometers from Earth, breaking the Apollo-era mark for the farthest human voyage.
- Reentry topped roughly 24,000 miles per hour and heated the heat shield to about 2,760°C, confirming Orion’s high-speed return system worked as designed.
- Recovery teams from NASA and the U.S. military brought the crew aboard a ship in good condition after parachute-assisted splashdown.
- NASA plans a 2027 docking test between Orion and a lunar lander and aims for two crewed landings in 2028, a timeline clouded by the unfinished SpaceX lander and growing concern among international partners as China expands its own lunar push.