Orion spacecraft descends from lunar orbit and begins to fly to Earth - the landing is scheduled for December 11

The Orion spacecraft has successfully completed most of its Artemis I mission tasks.

Here's What We Know

As planned, the Orion capsule with dummies on board descended from lunar orbit at 11:53 p.m. (EET) on Dec. 1, day 16 of the Artemis I mission. To perform the maneuver, the spacecraft activated its main engines, which ran for about two minutes.

One of Orion's tasks, about which little has been said, was to collect information on the intensity of radiation in space. In late November, the ship entered a far retrograde orbit around the Moon, moving more than 434,000 km away from Earth, a record.

At such a distance, our planet's magnetic field is unable to protect the crew and equipment from radiation. To collect data, specialists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have equipped dummies with radioactive radiation sensors.

On December 5 at 12:43 (EDT) or 09:43 (PDT) Orion will pass 128 km from the moon. On Dec. 11, the spacecraft will land in the Pacific Ocean near the California coast. The capsule will enter Earth's atmosphere at high speed, allowing it to test a heat shield that hasn't been used since Apollo's first lunar program.

Source: NASA