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NASA’s Artemis program’s first mission is scheduled to conclude Sunday with the Orion spacecraft’s fiery return through Earth’s atmosphere and a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post
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Artemis I blasts off with the Orion spacecraft on board, on Nov. 16.
Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post
Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post
The flight had no astronauts on board, but the program’s goal is to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since the Apollo era of the 1960s and early ‘70s.
Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post
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/NASA
Astronauts on Apollo 9 in March 1969.
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Nasa/Nasa
The Orion spacecraft chronicled its trip with several cameras mounted to the outside of the spacecraft, capturing images reminiscent of what the Apollo astronauts saw.
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A view of Earth as it moves above the moon's horizon, as seen from the Apollo 11 spacecraft, in July 1969. (NASA)
The first high-resolution image of Earth from a camera on one of Orion's solar arrays. (NASA)
The Orion takes a close-up of the moon. (NASA/AP)
The lunar surface during Apollo 12's mission in 1969. (NASA)
The next step, Artemis II, will be to send a crew of astronauts around the moon, and eventually a human landing on the moon, which NASA hopes could happen as early as 2025.
The moon, as photographed by Orion. (NASA)
That date might slip, but when NASA does land, it would finally fulfill the pledge made by Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, who, as he departed the lunar surface in 1972, vowed, “We shall return.”
Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post
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Credits
Photo editing by Haley Hamblin. Video Editing by Joy Li. Editing and Production by Karly Domb Sadof.