The astronauts of the Artemis II mission successfully carry out the first maneuver to return to Earth

The astronauts of the Artemis II mission have completed the first maneuver to return to Earth after flying over the Moon. As reported by NASA, the Orion spacecraft turned on its thrusters for 15 seconds at 8:03 p.m. Eastern Time in the United States (USA) this Tuesday (that is, at 2:03 a.m. Spanish time on Wednesday). This produced a velocity change of 1.6 feet per second and guided the crew toward Earth.

Following suit testing, the astronauts will take manual control of the spacecraft, using Orion’s field of view to center a designated target before guiding the spacecraft into a tail attitude toward the Sun and comparing their control modes. This manual piloting demonstration will begin at 9:59 p.m. (03:59 Spanish time).

The DPA added that the astronauts spoke briefly with their colleagues on board the International Space Station (ISS) via an audio link. In this context, Christina Koch has commented how she was impressed not only by the beauty of the Earth, but also by the darkness that surrounded it when asked what she thought of the view of the Earth and the Moon. In his opinion, this made the sight even more extraordinary.

Additionally, she has told ISS astronaut Jessica Meir that she always hoped they would be together in space again, but she never thought it would be like this. In 2019, both participated in the first all-female spacewalk in 2019. For his part, astronaut Victor Glover explained that the Orion capsule offered much less space than the ISS and added that everything they did began with space limitations.