The end of the Artemis I flight test's remarkable 25 and a half day journey was marked by the splash down of NASA's capsule in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday. A major step towards NASA's goal of returning astronauts to the lunar surface was achieved with the success of the test, which traveled over one million miles.
It took a couple of days to recover from the middle of the ocean. The capsule arrived at the San Diego naval station on Tuesday and was open to the public.
The videos by NASASpaceFlight have a serious amount of charring in them. After the beating it took during reentry, the bottom third looked like a marshmallows.
The capsule's modular heat shield is chewed up by the charring. NASA says the temperature was around 5,000 degrees F, which is less than the Sun's surface temperature.
NASA engineers will look at the resilience of the spaceship. The space agency plans to reuse some of the Orion's parts in its next iteration, which will be carrying astronauts.
NASA could save a lot of money if the onboard flight computers don't need to be replaced.
The capsule's data, collected through a variety of sensors, as well as a wealth of valuable insights that will come with analyzing the flight computers themselves, make it valuable not only for its salvaged parts, but also for its data.
There will be plenty of time to prepare for the next Artemis II mission which will have astronauts perform a lunar flyby at least two years from now.
There is more on Artemis: One Silly Little Detail.
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