10 days after the launch of NASA’s unmanned “Artemis 1” mission, the Orion spacecraft entered lunar orbit. On Friday, NASA said that the agency’s flight controllers “successfully conducted a burn-out to get Orion into a distant orbit,” which means that the spacecraft will fly about 64,400 kilometers above the moon.
The agency stated that due to the distance of the orbit, the capsule will take about a week to make half a lap around the moon, after which it will exit the lunar orbit again to start its return journey to Earth. Orion is scheduled to break the record for the farthest distance traveled by a spacecraft designed to transport astronauts from Earth, the record set by the Apollo 13 vehicle in 1970.
NASA said that Orion will be at the farthest distance from Earth, at a distance of more than 430,000 km, on November 28. NASA’s Artemis mission aims to land American astronauts on the moon again for the first time in nearly 50 years. The first Artemis mission, which is unmanned, takes the Orion spacecraft 64,000 km from the Moon in order to demonstrate its capabilities.
After about four to six weeks, the mission will end up testing Orion’s ability to return safely to Earth. This will be followed by Artemis 2, Orion’s first manned spaceflight mission.
The moon landing will be the culmination of the Artemis missions. Originally designated for 2024, this historic event is currently scheduled to take place as early as 2025. The mission will carry four astronauts to lunar orbit in the Orion spacecraft, where two of them, at least one of them a woman, will transfer to a SpaceX lander for the final approach to the moon.