A Year Before: Artemis I Takes Off
Orion made two flybys of the moon in a span of 25.5 days, traveling as close as 80 miles (129 kilometers) from the surface. During the voyage, Orion traveled around 270,000 miles (435,000 kilometers) beyond Earth to its furthest point. As the last significant milestone of the Artemis I mission, NASA’s Orion spacecraft successfully executed a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on December 11, 2022, at 12:40 p.m. EST.
The first of several progressively difficult missions, Artemis I, will pave the way for future trips to Mars and lunar exploration by humans. Artemis II will carry humans around the moon after Artemis I proved successful.