Artemis crew prepares for Friday splashdown as Earth grows closer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (WINK)—The Artemis crew is on day eight of their mission, fast-tracking toward Earth with just two days until touchdown.

The crew is picking up speed as they approach home. Yesterday, they were traveling about 1,300 miles per hour, and now they are going even faster.

On the agenda for the day, the astronauts are building a shelter inside the Orion capsule. It almost looks like a fort kids might build.

The goal is to make sure the crew can protect themselves from high radiation events like solar flares. This is a concern when traveling into deep space.

Astronaut Victor Glover is going to practice his driving skills. They are putting the Orion capsule under manual control, and he will put the capsule through a variety of tasks.

Then, a little housekeeping as Earth keeps getting bigger and bigger in the window. They'll be home soon.

Friday will be the splashdown, scheduled for 8:07 a.m. WINK News will stream the landing on winknews.com.

The mission is going well.