【▲ A selfie of the Orion spacecraft taken by the camera at the tip of the solar array on November 25, 2022 Japan time, day 8 of the mission. The moon is in the upper right (Credit: NASA)】
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced on November 26 (Japan time, the same applies hereinafter) that the new spacecraft “Orion”, which is undergoing unmanned flight tests, was successfully put into lunar orbit. did. NASA plans to conduct various inspections in the deep space environment while the Orion spacecraft makes a half-circle around the moon in about a week.
The Orion spacecraft was launched on November 16, 2022 with the first new rocket “SLS (Space Launch System)” to conduct unmanned flight tests on NASA’s “Artemis 1” mission. After launch, the Orion spacecraft entered an orbit toward the moon, and on November 21, it approached the lunar surface on the far side of the moon to about 81 miles (about 130 km).
At 06:52 on November 26th, the Orion spacecraft corrected its trajectory with an engine burn lasting 1 minute and 28 seconds and entered an orbit called DRO (Distant Retrograde Orbit). The DRO orbits in the opposite direction of the moon’s orbit, and is highly stable.
[▲OrbitoftheOrionspacecraftintheArtemis1mission(viewpointtrackingtheorbitalmotionofthemoon)BlueistheEarthwhiteistheMoonandredistheOrionspacecraftTheOrionspacecraftorbitsthemooninaretrogradeorbitInadditionthereasonwhythemoonreciprocatesleftandrightisthatthedistancefromtheearthchangesperiodicallyandthefullmoonwhenitapproachestheearthiscalledaso-calledsupermoon(Credit:ESA)】
[▲ThemoonandtheorbitoftheOrionspacecraftintheArtemis1missionasseenfromEarthBlueistheEarthwhiteistheMoonandredistheOrionspacecraftFromEarththeOrionspacecraftenteringtheDROappearstobeflyinginthesamedirectionasthemoon’sorbitbeingovertakenbythemoon(Credit:ESA)】
In addition, the Orion spacecraft that entered DRO will pass through a point of 248,655 miles (about 400,171 km) from the earth at 23:25 on November 26th. This distance is the furthest ever reached by a spacecraft designed for manned flight, and was recorded by Apollo 13 in April 1970. The Artemis 1 mission broke this record for the first time in 52 years, with the Orion spacecraft reaching its furthest point from Earth at 268,552 miles (432,192 km) at 6:48 on November 29. It is planned.
The Orion spacecraft is scheduled to leave the DRO on December 2nd and return to Earth on December 12th.
connection:Beautiful ‘Earthrise’ video taken by NASA’s Orion spacecraft
Source
Sentence/sorae editorial department