NASA Artemis 1 Orion Spacecraft Homecoming: How to Recover Capsule From Ocean Explained

Even NASA's Artemis 1 mission to the Moon and back, which was a huge success, has to end. So far, it's worked, but Orion still has to endure a scary reentry through Earth's atmosphere. Right here, you can see what's going on in real time.

NASA will start to cover this event on Sunday at 11 a.m. ET. You can watch the live broadcast on NASA TV, YouTube, and the live stream below. After Orion is expected to land at 12:40 p.m. ET, the coverage will continue because NASA's Mission Control in Houston will hand over the mission to the Exploration Ground Systems recovery team.

(Photo: JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
The Artemis I unmanned lunar rocket lifts off from launch pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on November 16, 2022. - NASA's Artemis 1 mission is a 25-and-a-half-day voyage beyond the far side of the Moon and back. The meticulously choreographed, uncrewed flight should yield spectacular images and valuable scientific data.

NASA Shares Plans on How to Get Artemis 1 Orion Capsule

Now, the assistant professor of ocean engineering and marine sciences has gone to San Diego to join the Navy ship USS Portland. On Sunday, he will help NASA predict and study the behavior of waves to help them get the bobbing Orion capsule out of the Pacific Ocean after the rocket crashes.

After Artemis' 2512-day mission, the Orion capsule will enter the Earth's atmosphere and slow down from 25,000 mph, which is about a dozen times faster than a rifle bullet, to 300 mph. The heat shield on the capsule should get as hot as 5,000 degrees, which is twice as hot as molten lava.

After a series of parachutes open, NASA engineers think the 11-by-1612-foot capsule will slow down to about 20 mph before gliding back to Earth and landing on the water 50 to 60 nautical miles off the coast of San Diego. The crew of the recovery ship will be able to see it land.

Melissa Jones, who was in charge of the landing and recovery of the Artemis I spacecraft, said in a Florida Today report that they will frantically try to get to the capsule after it landed. This was to recover pieces of hardware that could sink to the bottom of the ocean if they were not found. This includes the ring-shaped forward bay cover of the spacecraft, which protects parachutes and other soft items during reentry.

ALSO READ: NASA's Artemis 1 Orion Spacecraft Prepares For Its Blazing Homecoming Soon

The Orion landing and recovery team is made up of about 95 people. They are Navy amphibious experts who know how to drive inflatable boats, NASA engineers and technicians from KSC and the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, Air Force weather experts, and people from Lockheed Martin Space Operations. A squadron of helicopters from Naval Air Station North Island, which is close by, will do aerial spotting.

Jones said that the Portland would get close to the bobbing Orion, and divers would use sensors to do "sniff checks" to see if the capsule was leaking hydrazine or ammonia. Then, Navy workers will attach towing lines to Orion and fill the ship's well deck with about 6 feet of seawater. A cable will pull the floating spacecraft through the ship's lowered stern gate and into a specially-made cradle.

Jones said the recovery team would have about six hours to take samples, take pictures, and do assessments and tests before towing the unmanned capsule into the well deck. This will include taking pictures of the heat shield for about an hour and a half before it touches anything inside the Portland.

Next Step For Artemis Mission

But all this can only happen if Orion makes it through reentry into the atmosphere. Mike Sarafin, who is in charge of the Artemis mission, said in a Gizmodo report that they are not letting their guard down. The Artemis mission manager said he was "encouraged" by the vehicle's overall performance and was looking forward to achieving the mission's last two main goals: a demonstration of Orion's ability to handle lunar reentry conditions and recovery after splashdown.

The first Artemis mission was full of memorable events, such as the launch of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, two close flybys of the Moon, and a new record for the farthest distance traveled by a passenger spacecraft. The pictures Orion sent back were wonderful. We will be able to see these views again in at least 2024 when NASA plans to launch the next mission, called Artemis 2.