Watch here: Orion's return to Earth

Engine tests on the Orion capsule have been completed and it is set to come back to Earth soon! What has it done in the past month, and what´s going to happen once it gets back to Earth?

Orion will return to Earth on Sunday! Splashdown is scheduled to happen on December 11 at 9:39 a.m. PT, just off the coast of Baja California, Mexico and it will be brought back to San Diego. We will stream the splashdown live here.

NASA’s Orion spacecraft has made some close approaches to the Moon. This first flight was never supposed to land on the Moon, future Artemis Missions will, but it did come about 80 miles from its surface on the morning of December 5th.

On the afternoon of December 5, Orion was 244,629 miles from Earth, traveling at about 668 mph.

Since its launch on November 16, the mission has been successful It has taken detailed pictures of the Moon. On the 13th day of the mission, the spacecraft reached the farthest distance from Earth this first phase will achieve, about 268,563 miles from us!

As one can imagine, every moment of the spacecraft is entirely calculated. For example, the 80-mile gap to the surface of the Moon was to harness the Moon’s gravity and use it as a slingshot to come back to Earth.

While so far from Earth, engineers have done multiple tests to make sure the spacecraft works seamlessly and to make sure anything can be fixed for when the astronauts come aboard the next Artemis 2 Mission, planned for sometime in 2024.

Orion was built to withstand the extremely hot temperatures that it will experience once it enters the Earth’s atmosphere. This is a crucial test to see how hot it could get for astronauts on future missions. There is a "Moonikin" aboard that has sensors that will help engineers and scientists determine how safe will be for humans aboard in future missions.

Rescue teams have been practicing to retrieve Orion from the sea for many weeks.