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Four astronauts are returning to Earth after becoming the first humans to fly to the moon in more than 50 years. Nasa’s Artemis 2 mission will end in a final fiery descent, with its crew facing a bone-juddering 13-minute ride through Earth’s atmosphere to the surface. The astronauts are expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean around 12.07pm (NZT), where the US navy will pick them up. Re-entry will be more tense than a typical space mission because the heat shield on the Orion crew capsule failed in the earlier Artemis I uncrewed test mission. It has not been replaced or redesigned, with only the trajectory tweaked to prevent a recurrence. The astronauts will be travelling at a speed of about 39,000km/h – 11km per second – and must slow down to just 32km/h for a safe landing. The spacecraft must also cope with temperatures of up to 2760C during re-entry. But Nasa is confident that it can get them home. “Every system we’ve demonstrated over the past nine days – life support, navigation, propulsion, communications – all of it depends on the final minutes of flight,” said Amit Kshatriya, Nasa’s associate administrator, at an earlier press conference. He added: “We have high confidence in the system, in the heat shield, and the parachutes and the recovery system that we’ve put together.” Since Artemis 2 launched on April 1, astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen have captivated the world with their updates and pictures of Earth and the far side of the moon. Now they have one final mission. To get home safely. - Agence France-Presse
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