Nasa’s Orion spacecraft is making its way back to Earth after a trip around the Moon that lasted 25 days. The uncrewed capsule, which is designed to carry astronauts, is set to splash down in the Pacific Ocean near Guadalupe Island at 5.40pm GMT on December 11.
If successful, the craft will take humans around the moon for its next mission, slated for 2024. The splashdown is the final hurdle Orion faces in what has so far been a successful demonstration mission.
The capsule blasted off from Earth on November 16 on Nasa’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket as part of the Artemis-1 mission, ushering in a new era of lunar exploration that could see humans return to the moon. Nine days later, it made history by travelling 270,000 miles beyond the Earth – the furthest any spacecraft designed to carry humans has gone.
