Good evening. It's good to be with you. We begin tonight in the Pacific
Ocean, where earlier today, NASA's Orion spacecraft splashed down
just off the Baja Peninsula, a test mission, which marks a significant
step towards returning astronauts to the moon. The agency says. It's
26 day mission called Artemis One was a success Splashdown.
From tranquility base to Torres. Literal oh to the tranquil waters
of the Pacific. The latest chapter of NASA's journey to the moon
comes to a close Orion.
Back on Earth.
A team recovered This space capsule, which has no astronauts on board
as it returned to Earth at 12 40 Eastern time this afternoon after
blasting off in mid November, using NASA's most powerful rocket ever,
Ryan spent a week in a sweeping lunar orbit, capturing stunning images
of our celestial backyard for more science correspondent. Miles o
Brien is with us miles. Thanks for thanks for joining us, so NASA
as I understand it made some last minute adjustments for that splashed
Down. There were some questions as to whether the capsule's heat
shield could withstand atmospheric reentry. All in all. How did everything
go?
I, You know, at the bottom of the ledger here, Jeff, this looks like
it was a very successful mission. But there, you know, there's a
lot of data to pore through more than a terabyte and a half has already
streamed right down from space. The engineers will be poring over
all this data to see how well the Orion capsule performed the big
question. The number one question on their mind is how well did that
heat shield perform?
They came in faster than any other piloted rated craft has ever come
into Earth's atmosphere before 25,000 miles an hour and they're testing
out a heat shield They have never flown with before. The idea is,
they're looking outward toward, uh, future mission where they'd be
coming back from Mars even faster, So they're going to be checking
that heat shield, making sure there was no damage to the spacecraft
and ultimately would keep astronauts safe and sound as they came
back.
Back so far, it looks good.
There was a camera mounted on the spacecraft that sent back some
pretty incredible pictures. Talk us through a few of them. What is
this image in particular?
Well as as Orion was headed toward the moon. We got a real taste
kind of a throwback on this day 50 years ago, Jeff you wouldn't remember.
But I did. Apollo 17. The last Apollo mission landed on the moon.
We have for the past 50 years been looking at shuttle missions and
the space station never going much more than 250 miles above the
planet. And now we're back on a voyage of exploration. And I gotta
say those images have been funded.
Look at to say the least. So Miles. Here's another image. This is
of the craters on the moon.
Yeah, you know, Orion, at times got very close to the surface of
the moon about 80 miles in altitude, And it has a camera on the spacecraft,
which is designed as an optical navigational system to help it know
where it is. But it also gave us some stunning looks at the moon
like we haven't seen for 50 years, and it is a reminder
That the moon is kind of a tough neighborhood. It will not be simple
landing there and all of those pockmarks. All those craters are also
a reminder that we live in a tough neighborhood. We're constantly
being bombarded by Meteors. And we don't see that evidence so much
here on Earth because it gets covered up by tectonic activity and
foliage and the oceans. But the moon is reminder.
That we get bombarded and we can go there and learn a little bit
more about what that means for the evolution of life here.
Well, Speaking of perspective, here's another image of the moon.
And then just beyond the moon. There is Mother Earth.
Yeah, This is an image We never got 50 years ago during Apollo because
Orion went much farther, almost 270,000 miles away from us A long,
elliptical orbit of the moon. And so we got a picture thanks to the
camera being on the solar array wing. So we got the spacecraft, the
moon and the Earth, And that's a shot that a pilot rated vehicle
has never captured before.
And again, it gives you a sense of scale. It's a reminder of how
fragile our little home is in the great inky void, so to speak. Uh
and it also gives you, um real flavor of the adventure of this journey.
And this last image is a close up of the Earth. Look at that.
That was just before splashdown a little while ago today and as it
came in, the images were stunning, and this is a reminder to me.
We we focus on these missions as moon missions, But I think in many
ways to become Earth missions because we spend so much time looking
back at our little blue marble, and it's It's such a beautiful place
to live. I think you would agree. It's my favorite planet. But here
they were coming in at 25,000 Miles an hour and this was, you know,
really the nail biting time for the team in Houston and elsewhere.
Would this spacecraft with the Heat shield work with those parachutes?
Open up? Would this novel reentry technique, this skipping technique
that they did similar to skipping a stone? Would that work? It seems
like everything did
Miles. As you mentioned the historic Apollo Moon landing took place
50 years ago, almost to the day, dear, I ask, why do we need to go
back? First of all, you know, the land Mass of the moon is about
the continent of Africa. Imagine if we landed at six places in Africa
and declared ourselves experts on Africa So there's obviously more
to learn their everything that NASA is doing right now is with an
eye towards having an encampment on the moon eventually.
And using that as a way of learning how to go even farther out, and
then the next step logically would be Mars. But it's also kind of
interesting to look back and take a moment to look at our planet
in this way and appreciate the fragility of the place. We live on
it. Maybe maybe we could get along a little better when we look at
that. Look at the Earth this way a little more. Maybe. Maybe.