(ORDO NEWS) — Pacific Ocean on December 11, returned to Florida.
The capsule arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on December 30. Orion is currently at NASA‘s Multipurpose Payload Processing Center. The ship is still hermetically sealed from its space journey.
The occupants of the capsule, the mannequins Zoar, Helga and Munikin Campos, patiently wait to be let out.
They will allow NASA to determine exactly what challenges people will face during the Orion flight as part of the Artemis II mission.
The teams will also analyze a heat shield that has withstood about 2,700 degrees Celsius on re-entry.
Late last year, NASA administrator Bill Nelson said it would take time to extract the avionics from Artemis I, retest and recertify them.
Artemis II is still on the list of missions scheduled to launch in May 2024. However, NASA management has made it clear that it needs at least a two-year break after the completion of the Artemis I mission, so the launch will most likely be carried out at the end of next year.
NASA, as part of Artemis II, is about to send four astronauts on an orbital mission to the Moon. It will last about eight days.
The names of the astronauts will be announced this spring. It is known that one of them will be from Canada.
Parked at Kennedy Space Center is the crew capsule for Artemis II, as well as the European service module that powers most of Orion’s power.
The new Orion capsule is awaiting the transfer of some of the parts that flew on the Artemis I.
Aviation components for guidance, navigation and control, radio antennas and transponders, as well as a video processing unit will be reused.
Since this time the ship will fly with live passengers, there is still a lot of work for engineers to turn on environmental control and life support systems before the flight.
The reuse of Orion capsules will increase from mission to mission to reduce costs.
All parts of the Space Launch System rocket are expected to arrive from suppliers this year.
NASA is also planning improvements to Launch Pad 39-B. Engineers need to complete work to create an emergency exit system and install a new liquid hydrogen tank.
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