I am obviously MUCH older than you, Orion !!

But then excitement isn’t governed by age

Day 9 - Highlights

Artemis II’s last full day in space kicked off with prep for their return to Earth. They studied their procedures for reentry and splashdown communicating back and forth with the flight control team as needed


Mission Daily Briefing/Q & A

Artemis II crew speaks to Congress on this Downlink Event


* Check Day 8 for changes / updates

Day 10 - Re-entry, Splashdown & Recovery

Crew wake up 11:35 pm EST

Artemis II Daily Schedule(check day 10 times) and Moon Mission Daily Agenda

Live Coverage - past events will run at times while crew sleeps

Live Views From Orion

Track Artemis - This is a 3D view driven by real time technology. Left click hold to swing around. Click on bottom left for more tracking options

Mission Updates

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Re-entry

Artemis II is scheduled to begin re-entry into Earth's atmosphere around 7:50 pm EST and Splashdown at 8:07 pm EST April 10th. Weather remains a go

This is the most dangerous part of the flight with the heat shield experiencing approximately 3000 to 5000 degrees F while entering earth's atmosphere. After traveling beyond the Moon, nearly 270,000 miles from Earth, the capsule will work up a speed of 25,000 miles per hour upon entry slamming through Earth’s atmosphere. Friction will cut that speed to 300+ mph in a matter of minutes. The result is heat – and a lot of it

Orion and the Service Module will separate before re-entry leaving the service module to burn up in Earth's atmosphere. Orion has to position itself at the right angle so not to bounce off earth's atmosphere thrown back into space, for another try splashing down elsewhere, or burn up entering earth's atmosphere. There will be a 6 minute blackout period during this time

How it Works - A 2014 video a NASA engineer explains the heat shield on Orion


Splashdown

Once in earth's atmosphere traveling at 350 mph a series of parachutes will deploy slowing the craft down to around 17 mph splashing down in the Pacific ocean off the San Diego coastline at 8:07 pm EST. After splashdown recovery efforts begin. The USS John P. Murtha will be onsite to start the recovery efforts

Artemis 2 Earth Re-entry, Splashdown and Recovery Plan Explained by NASA

Video of Recovery

Launch to Splashdown

Artemis II Landing Location


Re-entry of the Orion capsule will start around 7:45 pm EST. Communications between Orion and Mission Control on re-entry will be going on all day preparing. If you have followed the Artemis II mission or not this is something you will want to watch. It will be shown live on NASA's Live Coverage as well as live return coverage on NASA+, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Netflix, HBO Max, Discovery+, Peacock and Roku starting at 6:30 p.m EST

That 6 minute blackout period will feel like hours not only to the crew, Mission Control but all watching around the world

I can't wait! I will be so relieved to have them safe and sound back on terra firma!

Yes indeed, it will be good to have them home!