People around the world will have their eyes on San Diego County today when the Orion capsule carrying NASA’s Artemis II crew re-enters the atmosphere, returning to Earth from its historic 10- day trip around the moon.
Here’s what to expect and how you can watch live.
(NASA)
Time
The capsule is expected to re-enter at 4:54 p.m. when it is about 400,000 feet above Earth’s surface, and will parachute into the ocean 50 to 60 miles west of San Diego at 5:07 p.m.
Sonic boom
NASA says that people along the coast of San Diego County might hear a sonic boom Friday afternoon.
The boom could be loud enough to shake windows in some areas.
Weather
Skies will be partly cloudy.
Weather will make it unlikely that people will catch a glimpse of the capsule and its 11 parachutes.
After splashdown
The four astronauts — Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, NASA mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen — will be guided out of the capsule by a recovery team from the San Diego-based warship USS John P. Murtha.
USS Murtha will be stationed a short distance away, preparing to transport the crew by helicopter to Naval Air Station North Island.
The Artemis II crew will then be flown to Houston by jet.
Watch parties
Watch history live at the Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park. A live splashdown event is scheduled today from 3 to 5:30 p.m., separate tickets are required. For more information on the events, visit fleetscience.org/experiences/artemis-week.
At the San Diego Air & Space Museum, an Artemis II splashdown pajama viewing party is scheduled for today starting at 4 p.m. There will be family-friendly activities, including rocket launches, parachute and landing challenges, chocolate heat shielding experiments and robotics and engineering buildouts. 2001 Pan American Plaza, San Diego. 619-234-8291, sandiegoairandspace.org
How to stream live
You can watch Artemis II’s return to earth starting at 3:30 p.m.
NASA will have a livestream, including on its social media accounts.
Netflix, Peacock, Prime, Amazon Prime, HBO Max and other streaming services will have live coverage.
Ahead of Artemis II’s finale here Friday, here are 7 San Diego County NASA connections to know