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Programme ArtemisSnoopy returned intact from his space trip
NASA has opened the hatch of its Orion spacecraft to remove the contents, including the mascot that serves as a gravitational reference and the test dummies.
Technicians remove the payloads and assess the condition of the capsule.
NASA/Ben Smegelsky
Technicians began by carefully studying the spacecraft’s heat shield, which was heavily blackened following entering the atmosphere.
NASA
NASA engineers and technicians open the hatch of the Orion spacecraft following its 1.4 million kilometer journey past the Moon and back. The spacecraft returned to Kennedy Space Center in Florida on December 30, 2022, following diving into the Pacific Ocean on December 11.
In a photo released by NASA on Jan. 10, a technician is seen inside the crew module removing payloads and assessing the state of the capsule. The team removed all passengers and Snoopy’s weight indicator, and moved them to labs. There were no humans on board for this first mission, but three humanoid-like payloads, in fact mannequins stuffed with receivers, which will help to understand how best to protect astronauts during future Artemis missions to the Moon .
Refurbished Items for Artemis II
This week, technicians will extract nine avionics cases from Orion, which will then be refurbished for Artemis II, the first mission with astronauts. The contents include a video processing unit, a GPS receiver, four crew module phased array antennas and three Orion inertial measurement units. The seat Commander Moonikin Campos (the most elaborate dummy) occupied on Artemis I will also be refurbished for the second flight.
In the coming months, technicians will remove the risk elements that remain on board. Once complete, the spacecraft will travel to NASA’s Neil A. Armstrong Test Site in Glenn for testing. The American space agency did not specify what happened to another passenger, Shaun the sheep, mascot of the European Space Agency who was on board, but its official site gave an update.
