{"id":524286,"date":"2026-04-11T00:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T00:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/524286\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T00:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T00:41:10","slug":"artemis-ii-live-crew-splash-down-in-pacific-ocean-after-history-making-moon-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/524286\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemis II live: Crew splash down in Pacific Ocean after history-making Moon mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Service module separates from Orion capsulepublished at 00:36 BST 11 April<\/p>\n<p>00:36 BST 11 April<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-qs9kpv-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/67db26c1-b336-4b9e-8307-5c83efdce26a.jpg.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Pallab Ghosh<br \/>Science correspondent<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The service module shown separating from the Orion capsule above Earth, with space also seen in the background\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/7cba0d73-193e-44ba-9632-a317286b9d04.jpg.webp.webp\"  width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, NASAImage caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The service module shown separating from the Orion capsule<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The service module has separated from the Orion capsule. This is the moment the crew are, in one practical sense, truly on their own.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">For the past 10 days, the cylindrical service module \u2014 built by the European Space Agency \u2014 has been the workhorse of the mission. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Its engines performed the burns that sent Orion looping around the Moon. Its solar arrays generated the power that kept the crew alive. Its propulsion system nudged the vehicle onto a homeward trajectory across 230,000 miles of empty space. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Now it has been jettisoned and will burn up in the atmosphere, its job complete. It will never be recovered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">What remains is the crew module: the blunt-nosed cone in which Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen have eaten, slept, and marvelled for the past week and a half. It is roughly the size of a large car. It must now survive a plunge through the atmosphere at 24,661mph (39,688km\/h).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The final trajectory correction burn is underway, locking the capsule into its precise angle of approach for re-entry into the Earth\u2019s atmosphere. Nasa&#8217;s engineers have less than a degree of margin. Too shallow, and Orion skips off the atmosphere and cannot return. Too steep, and the heating is unsurvivable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The riskiest part is about to begin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Service module separates from Orion capsulepublished at 00:36 BST 11 April 00:36 BST 11 April Pallab GhoshScience correspondent&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-524286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}