
However, prior to the water landing, the Orion space capsule will enter the Earth’s atmosphere very much like a meteorite. Arriving home at 32 times the speed of sound, Artemis will push the reentry limits of our knowledge as well as our technology. The fastest meteors enter about seven times faster than that, but there are plenty of meteorites that arrived at the paltry speed of only one sixth that of the speediest of meteors, or slightly faster than Artemis. But no matter how a rock or a space capsule slices the atmosphere, the speeds are faster than we have every returned something alive from space. The current unmanned record holder is the STARDUST Sample Return Capsule which entered the Earth’s atmosphere at a blazing 37.6 times the speed of sound back in 2006.

The Valera meteorite fell the same year Apollo 17 successfully went to the moon and returned. And it would be the last time humans visited the moon until, well, maybe 2026 if all goes well with Artemis 1, Artemis 2 and of course Artemis 3, the one to carry four humans (not just men this time) to the moon. So even though Artemis 1 has yet to hear “Go for launch,” I hope the return to the moon happens before more recent meteorite falls drift through time into the category I love dearly, that of the historic witnessed fall.
Until next time….And Godspeed Artemis!