After a 25-day flight beyond the Moon and back inside the Artemis I Orion crew module, two manikins undergo post-flight payload inspections inside the Space Station Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 11, 2023. As part of the Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment (MARE) investigation, the two female manikins – Helga and Zohar – were equipped with radiation detectors. Zohar also wore a radiation protection vest, to determine the radiation risk during the Artemis I mission and potentially reduce exposure during future missions with astronauts. The detectors will be removed at Kennedy and the torsos will return to teams at the German Space Agency for further analysis. Artemis I Orion launched atop the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39B on Nov. 16, 2022, at 1:47 a.m. EST. During the flight, Orion flew farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown, paving the way for human deep space exploration and demonstrating NASA’s commitment and capability to extend human presence to the Moon and beyond. The primary goal of Artemis I was to thoroughly test the SLS and Orion spacecraft’s integrated systems before crewed missions. Under Artemis, NASA aims to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon and establish sustainable lunar exploration.
View more photos here, and watch a video of post-flight payload processing here.
Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett