“Splashdown confirmed at 7:07 p.m. Central Time. 5:07 p.m. Pacific Time. From the pages of Jules Verne to a modern-day mission to the moon, a new chapter on the exploration of our celestial neighbor is complete,” said an announcer from NASA, who was commentating the shuttle’s re-entry over the live feed broadcasted at Chabot.<\/p>\n
Re-entry is always one of the riskiest parts of spaceflight. This matter was particularly true for Artemis II, because of a known design flaw.<\/p>\n
“During the mission, (the astronauts) went around the back side of the moon,” said Gerald McKeegan, an astronomer at Chabot.<\/p>\n
He says traveling to the far side of the moon has implications far beyond space exploration.<\/p>\n
RELATED: Artemis II crew exits Orion capsule after successfully splashing down in the Pacific<\/a><\/p>\n “A long time ago, when the earth was being earth, was being pummeled by asteroids 3.8 billion years ago, some of the rocks that were thrown off the earth ended up on the moon. So, we can find on the moon, rocks that are older than any of the rocks we can find on earth. That might give us clues how life might have originated on earth,” McKeegan said.<\/p>\n “This is cool. This is once in a lifetime almost, right! It’s great for the kids to see it at this age and get interested. And, you know, maybe future astronauts here, I don’t know,” said Orinda resident Joe Liu, who came with his young son and daughter.<\/p>\n “It was kind of cool to see a spaceship land on earth,” said Liu’s young son, Damian.<\/p>\n The Artemis astronauts once dreamed of space travel themselves. In the audience Friday was a new generation of dreamers.<\/p>\n
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