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Artemis 1 crew capsule to return to Ohio for testing after moon mission

Additional testing will be done on the Orion capsule by NASA Glenn Research Center once it returns from orbiting the moon.

CLEVELAND — NASA officials confirmed the Artemis 1 crew capsule (known as Orion) spends 42 days orbiting the moon, it will return to the Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky for additional testing.  

The testing will make sure NASA astronauts are safe during a launch abort, if that were to happen.  

RELATED: Artemis 1 rocket launch scrubbed Monday: Here's the next launch opportunity

“You want to make sure of the integrity of the shell and you go through all the inspections of the systems,” said Brian Smith, the Director of Facilities Test and Manufacturing at NASA Glenn Research Center. “But we will actually take it through additional stress tests. So, if we didn’t stress it enough, we want to do some additional stress tests.”

The Artemis 1 crew capsule and service module spent about two months inside the world’s largest vacuum chamber at the Armstrong Test Facility at the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020.

It is not clear yet the timing of the new testing.

“The path keeps coming through Cleveland,” Smith remarked about the path the Artemis missions are taking to return to the moon.

RELATED: Artemis 1 rocket launch: The Northeast Ohio connections and hometown pride

Editor's note: Video in the player above was originally published in a previous Artemis story before the launch was scrubbed on Aug. 29, 2022.

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