The sky’s the limit to their space secrets.
The Artemis II crew says it is returning from humanity’s farthest galactic journey with cosmically cool “stories” and dazzling information that’s yet to be revealed.
“There’s so much data that you’ve seen already, but all the good stuff is coming back with us,” pilot astronaut Victor Glover said from outer space this week. “There’s so many more pictures, so many more stories, and, gosh, I haven’t even begun to process what we’ve been through.
“We have to get back,” he said, according to NPR.
To return safely from its historic 10-day moon mission, the crew must re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere at a precise angle — while taking a daring plunge through ultra-hot temperatures at a mind-bending speed of nearly 25,000 mph.
“Let’s not beat around the bush,” said Jeff Radigan, Artemis II’s lead flight director. “We have to hit that angle correctly. Otherwise, we’re not going to have a successful re-entry.”
The space capsule will enter the atmosphere near Hawaii at 7:53 p.m. ET, then splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego if all goes to plan.
The re-entry is thought to be the most dangerous part of the Artemis II’s mission as the 330-cubic-foot capsule is scorched by heat half as hot as the sun’s surface.
The four astronauts on board launched from the Kennedy Space Center on April 1 in a test flight to orbit the moon — marking humankind’s first return to deep space since 1972.
They later set the record for the greatest distance humans have ever traveled into space at roughly 252,756 miles, beating the previous one set by the Apollo 13 in 1970.
