Somehow I missed this dramatic video of the Artemis I Orion spacecraft reentering the atmosphere after its uncrewed trip around the moon.
I hadn’t really processed the tremendous speeds involved in the spacecraft’s return from the moon until I watched the following animations tracing its flight path using inertial and rotating reference frames.
Artemis I flight path, Earth Centered Inertial. Phoenix7777
Artemis I flight path, Earth Centered Rotating. Phoenix7777
The spacecraft was traveling nearly 40,000 km/h (25,000 mph) when it first entered the upper atmosphere. After using a skip-style non-ballistic reentry to bleed off excess speed (the two deceleration phases are quite apparent in the video) the spacecraft deployed its parachutes for a successful splashdown.
Artemis II is scheduled to take four astronauts back to the moon sometime after September 2025.