NASA's Orion space capsule has splashed down safely in the Pacific, completing the Artemis-1 mission - a more than 25-day journey around the Moon with an eye to returning humans there in coming years.
After hurtling through the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 40,000km/h, the uncrewed capsule floated down to the water with the help of three large red and white parachutes, as seen on NASA TV.
Splashdown.
— NASA (@NASA) December 11, 2022
After traveling 1.4 million miles through space, orbiting the Moon, and collecting data that will prepare us to send astronauts on future #Artemis missions, the @NASA_Orion spacecraft is home. pic.twitter.com/ORxCtGa9v7
After a few hours of tests, the vessel will be recovered by a US Navy ship in waters off the Mexican island of Guadalupe.
NASA has invested tens of billions of dollars in the Artemis programme due to take people back to the Moon and prepare for an onward trip, someday, to Mars.
So far the first test of this uncrewed spacecraft has gone very well.
A first test of the capsule was carried out in 2014 but that time the capsule stayed in Earth's orbit, so it came back into the atmosphere at a slower speed of around 32,187km/h.
A US Navy ship, the USS Portland, is positioned in the Pacific to recover the Orion capsule in an exercise that NASA has been rehearsing for years. Helicopters and inflatable boats are also deployed for this task.
The falling spacecraft was slowed first by the Earth's atmosphere and then a web of parachutes until it eased to a speed of 30km/h when it finally hit the blue waters of the Pacific.
NASA will let Orion float for two hours - a lot longer than if astronauts were inside - to collect data.
"We'll see how the heat soaks back into the crew module and how that affects the temperature inside," Jim Geffre, NASA's Orion vehicle integration manager said earlier.
Divers will then attach cables to Orion to hoist it onto the USS Portland, which is an amphibious transport dock vessel, the rear of which will be partly submerged. This water will be pumped out slowly so the spacecraft can rest on a platform designed to hold it.
This should all take about four to six hours from the time the vessel first splashed down.
The Navy ship will then head for San Diego, California where the spacecraft will be unloaded a few days later.
The spacecraft will have travelled 2.3 million kilometres since it took off on 16 November with the help of a monstrous rocket called SLS.
At its nearest point to the Moon it flew less than 130km from the surface. And it broke the distance record for a habitable capsule, venturing 432,000km from our planet.
Recovering the spacecraft will allow NASA to gather data that is crucial for future missions.
This includes information on the condition of the vessel after its flight, data from monitors that measure acceleration and vibration, and the performance of a special vest put on a mannequin in the capsule to test how to protect people from radiation while flying through space.
Some components of the capsule should be good for reuse in the Artemis 2 mission, which is already in advanced stages of planning.
This next mission planned for 2024 will take a crew toward the Moon but still without landing on it. NASA is expected to name the astronauts selected for this trip soon.
Artemis 3, scheduled for 2025, will see a spacecraft land for the first time on the south pole of the Moon, which features water in the form of ice.
Only 12 people - all of them white men - have set foot on the Moon. They did this during the Apollo missions, the last of which was in 1972.
Artemis is scheduled to send a woman and a person of colour to the Moon for the first time.
NASA's goal is to establish a lasting human presence on the Moon, through a base on its surface and a space station circling around it. Having people learn to live on the Moon should help engineers develop technologies for a years-long trip to Mars, maybe in the late 2030s.
