NASA's Orion spacecraft returns to Earth after moon mission

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- NASA's Orion spacecraft returned to Earth on Sunday after making an uncrewed mission around the moon.

After 25.5 days in space and a 2.24-million-km journey around the moon, the Orion spacecraft splashed down off the coast of the U.S. state of California at 12:39 p.m. Eastern Time (1739 GMT) Sunday.

Orion was launched onboard NASA's Space Launch System rocket on Nov. 16 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the Artemis I mission.

The Artemis I flight test is an uncrewed mission around the moon that will pave the way for a crewed flight test and future human lunar exploration as part of NASA's Artemis lunar program.