Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: NASA’s Orion spacecraft has returned to Earth after a nearly 26-day lunar voyage in what is being marked as a milestone towards the return of humans to the moon.
After spending 25 and a half days in space and a 2.24-million-kilometer journey orbiting the moon, the capsule landed off the coast of the US state of California at 12:39 pm Eastern Time (1739 GMT) on Sunday. The spacecraft initially made a fiery re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, followed by a slowed descent with the help of parachutes to make a successful splash down in the Pacific Ocean.
Orion was launched on November 16th from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as part of the Artemis I mission of NASA.
Hopes rekindle to return humans to moon
The successful splashdown of the Artemis I uncrewed mission has strengthened hopes for NASA to make the first human landing on the moon in 50 years by putting the first woman and person of color on the lunar surface by 2025.
NASA’s Artemis lunar program aims to create a sustained human presence on and around the lunar surface.
