The crew members aboard lunar mission Artemis II are expected to make their return to Earth today.
The Orion capsule is set to enter the Earth’s atmosphere Friday afternoon, hurtling towards home at 40,000 km/h as the onboard heat shield protects the crew of four from a 2,700 C fireball expected to engulf the ship.
Canadian Jeremy Hansen – who has spoken to children, journalists, one prime minister and one president from the capsule – has made history with his three American colleagues. They have travelled deeper into space than anyone else before them. Hansen is the first Canadian Space Agency astronaut onboard a lunar mission.
A dynamic dance of parachutes, precisely planned burns and favourable weather will carry the astronauts through the final leg of the mission.
Here’s their itinerary (all times eastern):
- 3:05 a.m.: The crew goes to sleep for the last time onboard the Orion capsule
- 11:35 a.m.: The crew wakes up
- 1:50 p.m.: The crew begins cabin configuration for re-entry
- 2:53 p.m.: A correction burn takes place in order to calibrate the capsule’s trajectory back to Earth
- 6:30 p.m.: NASA will begin streaming the crew’s return. CTV News will provide updates as the capsule.
- 7:33 p.m.: The Orion crew module and service module, which carries the solar panels, engines, radiators, oxygen and water tanks, separate.
- 7:37 p.m.: Crew module raise burn
- 7:53 p.m.: Orion enters Earth’s atmosphere, 400,000 feet above the ground
- 8:07 p.m.: Splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. NASA and U.S. Department of War personnel are expected to assist the crew out of Orion and fly them to a waiting recovery ship
- 10:30 p.m.: Post-splashdown news conference at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas