Orion, an unmanned lunar orbiter, begins its return flight to Earth

The Orion, an unmanned spacecraft orbiting the moon of Artemis 1, launched on the 16th of last month as part of NASA’s manned lunar exploration plan, began its return flight to Earth.
NASA announced on the 6th that Orion, which flew close to the lunar orbit, was on a journey back to Earth. Orion passed the lunar landing sites of Apollo 12 and 14 in turn in the past, and flew within 130 km of the lunar surface. It also broke the long-distance flight record (about 400,000 km) set by Apollo 13. Orion’s scheduled return to Earth is the morning of the 11th.
According to NASA, Orion will enter the atmosphere at more than 30 times the speed of sound and then open its parachute and land in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California.

This flight is the first mission of the Artemis program aimed at returning mankind to the moon. NASA carried three mannequins and dolls instead of actual astronauts this time. Among them, Munekin Campos mannequin sat in a flight seat wearing a space suit with a radiation sensor. The Snoopy doll took on the role of recognizing the state of the spaceship when it became weightless. If this mission is successfully completed, the first woman and an astronaut of color will land on the south pole of the moon through a manned flight (Artemis II) in lunar orbit in 2024 and Artemis III in 2025 or 2026.