The four astronauts who flew around the Moon on NASA’s Artemis II mission are very close to returning to Earth, but one of the most dangerous and stressful parts of the mission has not yet been completed, NBC reports, as cited by Express.
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Victor Glover, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, are set to return to Earth on Friday evening after 10 days in space.
Their Orion capsule is scheduled to begin re-entry into the atmosphere at around 7:53 p.m. U.S. time, in a fiery descent expected to last less than 15 minutes.
If all goes well, the mission will conclude with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at 8:07 p.m. near San Diego.
“Those are 13 minutes of things that need to go right,” NASA Artemis II flight director Jeff Radigan said during a press conference on Thursday.
Re-entry is always one of the most dangerous parts of spaceflight, as spacecraft are exposed to temperatures of around 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit while passing through the atmosphere.
