The re-entry of the Orion spacecraft is by far the riskiest moment of the 10-day Artemis II mission.
The mission’s crew – Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen – will hit the Earth’s atmosphere travelling at an astonishing 40,000km/h.
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They’ll be enveloped in a fireball of plasma about half as hot as the surface of the sun.
We’re expecting the astronauts to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego at 10.07am.
That will mark the end of the mission which has captured the world’s hearts and imagination, and saw humanity’s first visit to our lunar neighbour in 53 years.
