AFP UK

Heavy snow and freezing conditions across swathes of the UK are causing major disruption

Three boys aged eight, 10 and 11 have died and another boy remains in critical condition after they fell into an icy lake near Birmingham, central England, police said Monday.

“Three boys have tragically died after falling into the lake at Babbs Mill Park in Solihull yesterday afternoon,” West Midlands Police said in a statement.

The boys suffered cardiac arrest and were rushed to hospital after being pulled from the water.

“Sadly, they could not be revived and our thoughts are with their family and friends at this deeply devastating time,” said police.

“A fourth boy, aged six, remains in a critical condition in hospital.”

Witnesses reported seeing other children on the lake, which froze during a cold snap that has hit swathes of the country. 

“Searches of the lake are continuing as we seek to establish exactly what happened and if anyone else fell into the water,” added police.

The incident came as the UK was hit by heavy snow and freezing conditions, causing major travel disruption, on the eve of a national rail strike Tuesday that was already expected to bring the country to a grinding halt.

– Arctic blast –

The UK has been experiencing a cold snap for several days, with temperatures dropping to -10 Celsius degrees (14 Fahrenheit) in some areas, although the Met Office said the temperatures were “not unusual for this time of year”. 

The service has issued yellow alerts for snow, fog and frost in several areas, including southeast and southwest England, and the north of Scotland.

London Stansted airport warned of disruption. 

“Our runway is temporarily closed whilst we undertake snow clearing,” it said late Sunday, with many flights cancelled early Monday.

The airport later said that the runway was open and fully operational, but that travellers should still brace for delays.

The airport is a main hub of budget airline Ryanair, which also cautioned about disruption to its flights at Gatwick, south of London.

“Due to ongoing severe snowy weather across the UK, runaways at both Stansted and Gatwick have been temporarily closed tonight (11 December),  disrupting all flights scheduled to depart Stansted/Gatwick during this temporary closure period,” it said.

Dozens of stranded passengers posted videos on social media showing snow-covered runways and planes stuck on the ground.

More than 50 flights were also cancelled on Sunday at Heathrow, the UK’s largest airport, due to freezing fog. 

Train and bus services in London were also severely affected after the dump of around four inches (10 centimetres) of snow overnight, which also forced the closure of parts of the M25 orbital road around the capital, the country’s busiest motorway.

Some schools were also shut.

Heavy snow and freezing conditions across swathes of the UK are causing major disruption

Four children were fighting for their lives on Monday, after being pulled from an icy lake as an Arctic blast sent temperatures tumbling across the UK.

The youngsters were reported to have been playing on frozen ice near Birmingham, central England, on Sunday afternoon, when it gave way and they fell in.

Emergency services said the children went into cardiac arrest when they were rescued and were taken to hospital in a critical condition.

The incident came as the UK was hit by heavy snow and freezing conditions, causing major travel disruption, on the eve of a national rail strike Tuesday that was already expected to bring the country to a grinding halt.

London Stansted airport warned of disruption. 

“Our runway is temporarily closed whilst we undertake snow clearing,” it added, with many flights cancelled early Monday.

The airport is a main hub of budget airline Ryanair, which also cautioned about disruption to its flights at Gatwick, south of London.

“Due to ongoing severe snowy weather across the UK, runaways at both Stansted and Gatwick have been temporarily closed tonight (11 December),  disrupting all flights scheduled to depart Stansted/Gatwick during this temporary closure period,” it said.

Both airports were open on Monday, but passengers were told to brace for delays.

Dozens of stranded passengers posted videos on social media showing snow-covered runways and planes stuck on the ground.

More than 50 flights were also cancelled on Sunday at Heathrow, the UK’s largest airport, due to freezing fog. 

Train and bus services in London were also severely affected after the dump of around four inches (10 centimetres) of snow overnight, which also forced the closure of parts of the M25 orbital route around the capital, the country’s busiest motorway.

Some schools were also shut.

The UK has been experiencing a cold snap for several days, with temperatures dropping to -10 Celsius degrees (14 Fahrenheit) in some areas, although the Met Office said the temperatures were “not unusual for this time of year”. 

The service has issued yellow alerts for snow, fog and frost in several areas, including southeast and southwest England, and the north of Scotland.

The Greek government has launched a poster campaign targeting mainly European pensioners

With most of Europe struggling with soaring energy costs, Greece has launched an initiative to put its mild winters to good use and attract sun-seeking travellers all year round.

The Mediterranean nation recorded November temperatures comfortably exceeding 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) — quite a draw for Europeans eager to save on heating bills that have rocketed in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

The Greek government has earmarked 20 million euros ($21 million) for a poster campaign targeting mainly European pensioners that could boost an economy where the travel sector represents 25 percent of annual output.

“Wanna feel 20 again?” says the poster featuring an elderly pair nibbling watermelon and sipping drinks on a yacht.

“With warm winter temperatures up to 20 degrees Celsius, Greece is the place to be,” it adds.

Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias, fresh from a tour of several European capitals including Paris and Berlin to promote the initiative, told AFP the government was working “on a plan to campaign for Greece 12 months per year”.

With northern European countries facing much longer and bitterly cold winters, “energy-wise there are many more needs than here in the south where the winter is mild” and shorter, he added.

“You live a great one or two months here enjoying your vacation and spending less than you would have spent staying at home,” Kikilias said.

– The Florida of Europe? –

“In Greece, no German has to freeze,” top-selling German daily Bild wrote in September, while business daily Handelsblatt suggested the country could become “the Florida of Europe”.

Kikilias said there was a “tradition” among northern European travellers to winter in Spain and Portugal, but he urged holidaymakers eager for sun, sea and sand to “take a look at the eastern Mediterranean (too)”.

After two years of economically painful travel restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, arrivals in 2022 could finish near the all-time high of 33 million tourists recorded in 2019.

By the end of September, 23.7 million people had holidayed in Greece, and the number of French, German and British visitors even topped 2019 levels.

TUI, the world’s largest tourism operator, earlier this year brought forward the launch of the tourist season because of high demand.

But tour operators have yet to take the plunge in the winter months. 

For the time being, TUI does not offer organised trips to Greece from December to February, said Evangelos Georgiou, one of the company’s communications managers.

And German charter airline Condor only offers flights to Kalamata airport in the Peloponnese peninsula until the end of November.

Condor flights to Heraklion on the island of Crete and Rhodes will only resume at the beginning of April, according to spokeswoman Johanna Tillmann.

France wants its caviar to become the gold standard

At the fish farm near Bordeaux, Christophe Baudoin is running an ultrasound device over the belly of a large sturgeon to check its eggs.

“Caviar!” he shouts as the monitor shows the right sparkle around each little round ball.

“Over-mature!” comes the next shout, indicating the fish’s pregnancy cycle has gone too far and the eggs have softened — losing the crucial crunch. It will go back in the lake to await another cycle in two years.

For the company, Sturia, it’s an incredibly laborious process — they ultrasound some 20,000 fish a year for a total of 300 tonnes of caviar — but climate change has made it vital.

Many fish are coming out “over-mature”, in part because warmer waters have accelerated the pregnancy cycle.

For the guys standing in the water, scooping up the huge fish for inspection, the winter days when 10 centimetres (four inches) of ice coated the lakes are not entirely missed. 

But the change is still shocking. 

“It’s been 10 years since we’ve seen any ice on these lakes,” said Baudoin.

One in five of the fish died in 2021 when water temperatures hit 30 degrees, five degrees above a sturgeon’s comfort zone. 

“You might not know each one by name, but it’s never nice to pull out a dead fish — and of course the cost for the group is enormous,” said Sturia boss Laurent Dulau. 

– Extinction threat –

Fished to the brink of extinction in the wild — including the once-rich Russian and Iranian waters of the Caspian Sea — sturgeon now exist almost exclusively in farms, most of them in China.

Sturgeon were fished in France’s Gironde river for centuries, but their eggs were given to children, old people and pigs until Russian nobles fleeing the Communist revolution a century ago showed locals their potential.

It became a delicacy in Paris after Armenian emigrants Melkoum and Mouchegh Petrossian convinced the Ritz Hotel in Paris to serve caviar in the 1920s. 

Farming only started in France in the 1990s, and since it takes up to a decade to raise a sturgeon, progress is painstaking. 

Unable to compete with China on quantity, French producers focus on sustainable and healthy farming. 

The ultrasound avoids unnecessary killing and Sturia sends the meat to be used for rillettes pate, the collagen-rich gonads for cosmetics, and the skin for leather and a specialist glue favoured by violin-makers.

– ‘Produce better’ –

Dulau said the focus on traceability and quality is rebuilding caviar’s image after the over-fishing crisis. 

“The idea is to produce less, but produce better,” he said. “People will eat less because it’s a lot more expensive, but it will be so good that they’ll be satisfied.”

But Michel Berthommier, of nearby Caviar Perlita, is frustrated that “nine out of 10, maybe 10 out of 10” French restaurants still source from China. He blamed middle-men for preferring the mark-up on foreign eggs.

“It’s bizarre at a time when restaurants are always saying they source their products locally. We sell more to Singapore than restaurants 10 kilometres down the road,” he said. 

But he said the transparency of French production will win over buyers. 

“There used to be a mystery around how these fish were raised and harvested. We have opened our books on how our fish live, how they are fed and selected. 

“We can’t be number one in production, but we can lead the way in creativity and science.”

NASA's unmanned Orion spaceship splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off Baja California, Mexico, on December 11, 2022

NASA’s Orion space capsule splashed down safely in the Pacific on Sunday, completing the Artemis 1 mission — a more than 25-day journey around the Moon with an eye to returning humans there in just a few years.

After racing through the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers) per hour, the uncrewed capsule floated down to the sea with the help of three large orange and white parachutes, as seen on NASA TV.

“I don’t think any one of us could have imagined the mission this successful,” said Artemis Mission Manager Mike Sarafin in a press conference.

“We now have a foundational deep space transportation system.” 

During the trip around Earth’s orbiting satellite and back, Orion logged well over a million miles and went farther from Earth than any previous habitable spacecraft.

“For years, thousands of individuals have poured themselves into this mission, which is inspiring the world to work together to reach untouched cosmic shores,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

“Today is a huge win for NASA, the United States, our international partners, and all of humanity,” he added.

After touchdown, helicopters flew over the floating spacecraft, which showed no evidence of damage.

Orion was recovered by a prepositioned US Navy ship off the coast of Mexico’s Baja California after some initial tests were run.

As it reentered the Earth’s atmosphere, the gumdrop-shaped capsule had to withstand a temperature of 2,800 degrees Centigrade (5,000 Fahrenheit) — about half that of the surface of the Sun.

The main goal of this mission was to test Orion’s heat shield — for the day when it carries astronauts.

Achieving success in this mission was key for NASA, which has invested tens of billions of dollars in the Artemis program due to take people back to the Moon and prepare for an onward trip, someday, to Mars.

A first test of the capsule was in 2014, but that time it stayed in Earth’s orbit, coming back into the atmosphere at a slower speed of around 20,000 miles per hour.

– Choppers, divers and boats – 

The USS Portland was positioned to recover the Orion capsule in an exercise NASA has been rehearsing for years. Helicopters and inflatable boats were also deployed.  

The falling spacecraft eased to a speed of 20 miles per hour as it finally hit the Pacific.

NASA let Orion float for several hours — a lot longer than if astronauts were inside — to collect data on temperatures inside the crew module.

Divers then attached cables to hoist Orion onto the USS Portland, an amphibious transport dock vessel whose stern was partly submerged. The water was then pumped out slowly so the spacecraft came to rest on a platform designed to hold it.

The Navy ship was then set to head for San Diego, California, where the spacecraft will be unloaded in the coming days.

Orion has now traveled 1.4 million miles since it took off from Florida on November 16, aided by the huge SLS rocket.

At its nearest point to the Moon, it flew less than 80 miles from the surface. And it broke the distance record for a habitable capsule from our planet, venturing 268,000 miles away at its farthest point.

– Artemis 2 and 3 –

Recovering the spacecraft will allow NASA to gather data that is crucial for future missions.

This includes information on the condition of the vessel after its flight, data from monitors that measure acceleration and vibration, and the performance of a special vest put on a mannequin in the capsule to test how to protect people from radiation while flying through space.

Some capsule components should be good for reuse in the Artemis 2 mission, already in advanced stages of planning.

That mission, planned for 2024, will take a crew toward the Moon but still without landing on it.

Artemis 3, scheduled for 2025, will see a spacecraft land for the first time on the south pole of the Moon, where they hope to find water in the form of ice. The space agency thereafter aims to launch one mission per year.

“We have hardware today in work around the world through Artemis 5, this isn’t just a one flight and we’re done,” said NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free.

As part of the Artemis missions, NASA is planning to send a woman and a person of color to the Moon for the first time.

Only 12 people — all of them white men — have set foot on the Moon. That was during NASA’s historic Apollo missions, which ended in 1972.

NASA hopes to establish a lasting human presence on the Moon, through a base on the surface as well as an orbiting space station.

Having people learn to live on the Moon should help engineers develop technologies for a years-long trip to Mars, possibly in the late 2030s.

Guatemala's volcano named Fuego — Spanish for fire — rumbled into activity overnight Saturday into Sunday, December 11, 2022, with molten rock oozing down its slopes and belching ash

One of the most active volcanoes in Central America erupted over the weekend, spewing lava and ash and forcing Guatemalan authorities to briefly close the country’s largest airport before activity eased on Sunday.

The volcano named Fuego — Spanish for fire — rumbled into activity overnight Saturday into Sunday, with molten rock oozing down its slopes and ash belching two kilometers (more than a mile) into the sky. Winds carried the ash toward Guatemala City, 35 kilometers (22 miles) away.

La Aurora international airport, six kilometers south of the capital, was temporarily closed at mid-morning, the General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics said in a statement, citing the presence of ash near the runway.

At least two incoming flights had to be diverted, aviation sources said, before it reopened around midday local time after winds changed direction and sent ash away from the facility.

In addition, a road that connects southern and central Guatemala was closed as a precaution, said Carlos Aquino, a spokesman for the highway police. It reopened Sunday afternoon as the volcano’s activity subsided.

The volcano sits about 16 kilometers from Antigua, the country’s picturesque former capital and biggest tourist attraction.

Fuego erupts every four to five years on average. In 2018, an eruption sent rivers of lava pouring down its sides, devastating the village of San Miguel Los Lotes, killing 215 people and leaving a similar number missing.

Authorities said they were monitoring the latest eruption closely, but that no one had been evacuated.

“With what happened in 2018, now the authorities are already more alert and more active,” said Jose Sul, a resident of Alotenango, which lies at the eastern base of Fuego.

Locals saw a sudden expulsion of lava on Saturday night that reddened the sky. “People here are used to experiencing this, and they look at it as normal,” Demetrio Pamal, a 28-year-old Indigenous Mayan farmer, told AFP.

Many local families have a backpack ready with food, water, a flashlight and medicine so they can evacuate for up to three days at the drop of a hat.

Sunday afternoon, the Guatemalan volcanological institute said that “activity has decreased; there are no longer pyroclastic flows or the emission of lava or eruptive columns loaded with ash.”

“After several hours of relative calm, this eruptive activity can be considered over,” said Roberto Merida, a technician at the volcanological institute.

Guatemala has two other active volcanoes — Santiaguito in the west of the country and Pacaya in the south.

Fuego also adjoins the inactive Acatenango volcano — at 3,500 meters.

Unlike South America’s Andean volcanoes, Guatemala’s are not snow-capped because of Central America’s warmer climate.

Central America has more than 100 volcanoes, many of which are wildly popular tourist attractions, even though they occasionally cause death and destruction. 

Guatemala's volcano named Fuego — Spanish for fire — rumbled into activity overnight Saturday into Sunday, December 11, 2022, with molten rock oozing down its slopes and belching ash

One of the most active volcanoes in Central America has erupted again, spewing lava and ash and forcing authorities in Guatemala City on Sunday to briefly close the country’s largest airport and a major highway. 

The volcano named Fuego — Spanish for fire — rumbled into activity overnight Saturday into Sunday, with molten rock oozing down its slopes and ash belching two kilometers (more than a mile) into the sky. Winds carried the ash toward Guatemala City, 35 kilometers (22 miles) away.

La Aurora international airport, six kilometers south of the capital, was temporarily closed at mid-morning, the General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics said in a statement, citing the presence of ash near the runway.

At least two incoming flights had to be diverted, aviation sources said, before it reopened around midday local time after winds changed direction and sent ash away from the facility.

In addition, a road that connects southern and central Guatemala was closed as a precaution, said Carlos Aquino, a spokesman for the highway police. It reopened Sunday afternoon as the volcano’s activity subsided.

The volcano sits about 16 kilometers from Antigua, the country’s picturesque former capital and biggest tourist attraction.

Fuego erupts every four to five years on average. In 2018, an eruption sent rivers of lava pouring down its sides, devastating the village of San Miguel Los Lotes, killing 215 people and leaving a similar number missing.

Authorities are monitoring the latest eruption closely, and so far no one has been evacuated, said Rodolfo Garcia, a civil protection spokesman.

“With what happened in 2018, now the authorities are already more alert and more active,” said Jose Sul, another resident of Alotenango.

Locals saw a sudden expulsion of lava on Saturday night that reddened the sky. “People here are used to experiencing this, and they look at it as normal,” Demetrio Pamal, a 28-year-old Indigenous Mayan farmer, told AFP.

Many local families have a backpack ready with food, water, a flashlight and medicine so they can evacuate for up to three days at the drop of a hat.

Guatemala has two other active volcanoes — Santiaguito in the west of the country and Pacaya in the south.

Fuego also adjoins the inactive Acatenango volcano — at 3,500 meters.

Unlike South America’s Andean volcanoes, Guatemala’s are not snow-capped because of Central America’s warmer climate.

Central America has more than 100 volcanoes, many of which are wildly popular tourist attractions, even though they occasionally cause death and destruction. 

In this still image taken from NASA TV, NASA's unmanned Orion spaceship splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off Baja California, Mexico, on December 11, 2022

NASA’s Orion space capsule splashed down safely in the Pacific on Sunday, completing the Artemis 1 mission — a more than 25-day journey around the Moon with an eye to returning humans there in just a few years.

After racing through the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 25,000 miles per hour (40,000 kilometers per hour), the uncrewed capsule floated down to the sea with the help of three large red and orange parachutes, as seen on NASA TV.

“NASA we had a picture perfect splashdown,” said Melissa Jones, NASA’s landing and recovery director.

During the trip around Earth’s orbiting satellite and back, Orion logged well over a million miles and went farther from Earth than any previous habitable spacecraft.

“For years, thousands of individuals have poured themselves into this mission, which is inspiring the world to work together to reach untouched cosmic shores,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

“Today is a huge win for NASA, the United States, our international partners, and all of humanity,” he added.

After touchdown, helicopters flew over the floating spacecraft, which showed no evidence of damage. 

Orion will be recovered by a prepositioned US Navy ship off the coast of Mexico’s Baja California after some initial tests are run.

As it reentered the Earth’s atmosphere, the gumdrop-shaped capsule had to withstand a temperature of 2,800 degrees Centigrade (5,000 Fahrenheit) — about half that of the surface of the Sun.

The main goal of this mission was to test Orion’s heat shield — for the day when it is humans and not test mannequins riding inside.

Achieving success in this mission was key for NASA, which has invested tens of billions of dollars in the Artemis program due to take people back to the Moon and prepare for an onward trip, someday, to Mars.

A first test of the capsule was carried out in 2014 but that time it stayed in Earth’s orbit, coming back into the atmosphere at a slower speed of around 20,000 miles per hour.

– Choppers, divers and boats – 

The USS Portland was positioned to recover the Orion capsule in an exercise NASA has been rehearsing for years. Helicopters and inflatable boats were also deployed.  

The falling spacecraft eased to a speed of 20 miles per hour as it finally hit the Pacific’s blue waters.

NASA then planned to let Orion float for two hours — a lot longer than if astronauts were inside — to collect data.

“We’ll see how the heat soaks back into the crew module and how that affects the temperature inside,” Jim Geffre, NASA’s Orion vehicle integration manager, said last week.

Divers will then attach cables to hoist Orion onto the USS Portland, an amphibious transport dock vessel whose stern will be partly submerged. This water will be pumped out slowly so the spacecraft can rest on a platform designed to hold it.

This should all take about four to six hours after splashdown.

The Navy ship will then head for San Diego, California where the spacecraft will be unloaded a few days later.

Orion has now traveled 1.4 million miles since it took off from the east coast of Florida on November 16, aided by the monstrous rocket called SLS.

At its nearest point to the Moon, it flew less than 80 miles from the surface. And it broke the distance record for a habitable capsule from our planet, venturing 268,000 miles away at its farthest point.

– Artemis 2 and 3 –

Recovering the spacecraft will allow NASA to gather data that is crucial for future missions.

This includes information on the condition of the vessel after its flight, data from monitors that measure acceleration and vibration, and the performance of a special vest put on a mannequin in the capsule to test how to protect people from radiation while flying through space.

Some capsule components should be good for reuse in the Artemis 2 mission, already in advanced stages of planning.

That mission, planned for 2024, will take a crew toward the Moon but still without landing on it. NASA is expected to name the chosen astronauts soon.

Artemis 3, scheduled for 2025, will see a spacecraft land for the first time on the south pole of the Moon, where they hope to find water in the form of ice.

As part of the Artemis missions, NASA is planning send a woman and a person of color to the Moon for the first time.

Only 12 people — all of them white men — have set foot on the Moon. That was during NASA’s historic Apollo missions, which ended in 1972.

NASA hopes to establish a lasting human presence on the Moon, through a base on the surface as well as an orbiting space station. Having people learn to live on the Moon should help engineers develop technologies for a years-long trip to Mars, possibly in the late 2030s.

The Guatemalan volcano known as Fuego is seen erupting on December 11, 2022; authorities closed a major road as a precaution

One of the most active volcanoes in Central America has erupted again, spewing lava and ash and forcing authorities in Guatemala City on Sunday to briefly close the country’s largest airport and a major highway. 

The volcano named Fuego — Spanish for fire — rumbled into activity overnight Saturday into Sunday, with molten rock oozing down its slopes and ash belching two kilometers (more than a mile) into the sky. Winds carried the ash toward Guatemala City, 35 kilometers (22 miles) away.

La Aurora international airport, six kilometers south of the capital, was temporarily closed at mid-morning, the General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics said in a statement, citing the presence of ash near the runway.

At least two incoming flights had to be diverted, aviation sources said, before it reopened around midday local time after winds changed direction and sent ash away from the facility.

In addition, a road that connects southern and central Guatemala was closed as a precaution, said Carlos Aquino, a spokesman for the highway police.

The volcano is about 16 kilometers from Antigua, the country’s picturesque former capital and biggest tourist attraction. 

Fuego erupts every four to five years on average. In 2018, an eruption sent rivers of lava pouring down its sides, devastating the village of San Miguel Los Lotes, killing 215 people and leaving a similar number missing.

Authorities are monitoring the latest eruption closely, and so far no one has been evacuated, said Rodolfo Garcia, a civil protection spokesman.

“With what happened in 2018, now the authorities are already more alert and more active,” said Jose Sul, another resident of Alotenango.

Locals saw a sudden expulsion of lava on Saturday night that reddened the sky. “People here are used to experiencing this, and they look at it as normal,” Demetrio Pamal, a 28-year-old Indigenous Mayan farmer, told AFP.

Many local families have a backpack ready with food, water, a flashlight and medicine so they can evacuate for up to three days at the drop of a hat.

Guatemala has two other active volcanoes — Santiaguito in the west of the country and Pacaya in the south.

Fuego also adjoins the inactive Acatenango volcano — at 3,500 meters.

Unlike South America’s Andean volcanoes, Guatemala’s are not snow-capped because of Central America’s warmer climate.

Central America has more than 100 volcanoes, many of which are wildly popular tourist attractions, even though they occasionally cause death and destruction. 

In this still image taken from NASA TV, NASA's unmanned Orion spaceship splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off Baja California, Mexico, on December 11, 2022

NASA’s Orion space capsule splashed down safely in the Pacific on Sunday, completing the Artemis 1 mission — a more than 25-day journey around the Moon with an eye to returning humans there in just a few years.

After racing through the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 40,000 kilometers per hour (25,000 mph), the uncrewed capsule floated down to the sea with the help of three large red and white parachutes, as seen on NASA TV. 

After a few hours of tests, the vessel will be recovered by a US Navy ship in waters off the coast of Mexico’s Baja California.

The capsule shaped like a gumdrop had to withstand a temperature 2,800 degrees Centigrade (5,000 Fahrenheit) — about half that of the surface of the sun — as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere.

The main goal of this mission was to test Orion’s heat shield — for the day when it is humans and not test mannequins riding inside.

Achieving success in this mission was key for NASA, which has invested tens of billions of dollars in the Artemis program due to take people back to the Moon and prepare for an onward trip, someday, to Mars.

A first test of the capsule was carried out in 2014 but that time it stayed in Earth’s orbit, coming back into the atmosphere at a slower speed of around 20,000 miles per hour.

– Choppers, divers and boats – 

The USS Portland was positioned to recover the Orion capsule in an exercise NASA has been rehearsing for years. Helicopters and inflatable boats were also deployed for this task.  

The falling spacecraft eased to a speed of 20 miles (30 kilometers) per hour as it finally hit the blue waters of the Pacific.

NASA will now let Orion float for two hours — a lot longer than if astronauts were inside — so as to collect data.

“We’ll see how the heat soaks back into the crew module and how that affects the temperature inside,” Jim Geffre, NASA’s Orion vehicle integration manager, said last week.

Divers will then attach cables to hoist Orion onto the USS Portland, which is an amphibious transport dock vessel, the rear of which will be partly submerged. This water will be pumped out slowly so the spacecraft can rest on a platform designed to hold it.

This should all take about four to six hours after splashdown.

The Navy ship will then head for San Diego, California where the spacecraft will be unloaded a few days later.

Upon returning to Earth, the spacecraft has traveled 1.4 million miles since it took off November 16 with the help of a monstrous rocket called SLS.

At its nearest point to the Moon it flew less than 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the surface. And it broke the distance record for a habitable capsule, venturing 268,000 miles (432,000 kilometers) from our planet.

– Artemis 2 and 3 –

Recovering the spacecraft will allow NASA to gather data that is crucial for future missions.

This includes information on the condition of the vessel after its flight, data from monitors that measure acceleration and vibration, and the performance of a special vest put on a mannequin in the capsule to test how to protect people from radiation while flying through space.

Some capsule components should be good for reuse in the Artemis 2 mission, already in advanced stages of planning.

This next mission planned for 2024 will take a crew toward the Moon but still without landing on it. NASA is expected to name the astronauts selected soon.

Artemis 3, scheduled for 2025, will see a spacecraft land for the first time on the south pole of the Moon, which features water in the form of ice.

Only 12 people — all of them white men — have set foot on the Moon. They did this during the Apollo missions, the last of which was in 1972.

Artemis is scheduled to send a woman and a person of color to the Moon for the first time.

NASA’s goal is to establish a lasting human presence on the Moon, through a base on its surface and a space station circling around it. Having people learn to live on the Moon should help engineers develop technologies for a years-long trip to Mars, maybe in the late 2030s.