NASA fired a final eight-second thruster burn at 15:16 EDT on 10 April, producing a 4.2 feet-per-second velocity change, published on the NASA Artemis blog and absent from wire coverage 1. This burn is distinct from the nine-second trajectory correction burn on 9 April that locked the re-entry corridor. The final adjustment confirms the approach geometry was managed to precision through the last minutes before ESM separation at 19:33 EDT.
11APR
Final 8-second pre-entry correction burn fires at 15:16 EDT
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13:15UTC
A last thruster adjustment was published on NASA's Artemis blog and not picked up by wire services, completing Orion's approach geometry before ESM separation.
ScienceDeveloping
Key takeaway
The approach was managed to precision; wire services missed it.
Deep Analysis
In plain English
Before a spacecraft re-enters Earth's atmosphere, Mission Control uses small thruster burns to position it precisely for the correct re-entry angle. Enter too steep, and the spacecraft experiences lethal heat and deceleration forces. Enter too shallow, and it skips off the atmosphere like a stone across water and continues into space. At 15:16 EDT on 10 April 2026, about an hour before Orion hit the atmosphere, NASA fired a final eight-second thruster burn. This changed the spacecraft's velocity by 4.2 feet per second, or roughly 1.3 metres per second. The burn was published on the NASA Artemis blog but did not appear in mainstream wire service coverage of the mission. The burn is operationally routine but precisely executed. After splashdown, Mission Control described the landing as a 'perfect bullseye'. The 4.2 fps correction burn is part of the reason why.
What could happen next?
The final correction burn confirms that Orion's approach navigation was actively managed to sub-metre-per-second precision, consistent with the Mission Control 'perfect bullseye' assessment.
Sources:NASA
First Reported In
Update #9 · First crewed Moon return since Apollo 17
NASA· 11 Apr 2026
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