It seems unbelievable, but xx days have already passed since the Artemis I mission took a big step, with a more than expected launch. Recall that it was planned for 2021, but that due to some problems in the SLS, NASA’s large launch vehicle was postponed, which allows the American space agency to restore its autonomy in space launches. In August of this year, we learned that everything was finally ready, but the new cold water jug, the launch that was supposed to take place the same month had to be canceled due to a problem with one of the SLS engines and was The same thing happened on the next attempt , this time in early September, due to a fuel leak.

It seemed like a never-ending story, almost giving the feeling that the Artemis I mission was “messed up” because all the launch windows centered between late August and early September were lost, but we have to consider the technical difficulty and safety parameters of the space agency, even for an unmanned mission like this. And if an accident occurs, the economic losses could seriously threaten the viability of the entire Artemis program.

Slowly but surely, the engineers continued to work from that point, and finally on December 15, SLS lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center, traditionally known as Cape Canaveral, with Orion on board, beginning the 25-day mission that would put Orion into orbit Moon, just 80 miles from its surface, and then performed a retrograde orbit around our planet’s satellite, a period used by science and engineering teams to perform more checks. And it’s by remembering that Artemis I is primarily a big test for Artemis II, which will be a manned mission.

With all Artemis I tests successfully completed, Orion left lunar orbit a few days ago to return home. In a few hours it will end with the ship re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere and its subsequent impact in the Pacific Ocean., near Guadalupe Island, located 130 nautical miles off the coast of Baja California. The exact location was chosen so as not to endanger anyone, as it is quite far from the earth’s surface and does not overlap with sea routes.

At the time of this report, at 17:00 PEST, NASA has just launched a YouTube broadcast in which it will provide complete access, re-entry and splashdown monitoring of Artemis I’s final hours, along with comprehensive mission analysis and expert commentary. However, the main course will still take a while because splashdown is scheduled for 6:40 p.m. (again Spanish Peninsular Time, 17:40 in the Canary Islands).

Artemis I is, as we told you before, the first mission of the Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon sometime this century and hypothetically to Mars sometime in the next decade.