Blastoff! Vega-C rocket launches advanced Earth-observation satellite for South Korea

After a historic journey around the Moon, NASA’s Orion spacecraft made a safe return to Earth on December 11, 2022. The capsule hit Earth’s atmosphere faster than any human-rated spacecraft before it, using a special skip re-entry to slow down and guide itself to the right landing spot. As it plunged through extreme heat, Orion’s heat shield took the full force — glowing hotter than the surface of the Sun. Then, a full parachute sequence kicked in: drogue chutes, pilot chutes, and three massive