NASA’s Orion spacecraft is now over 430,000 km (267,189 mi) from Earth, or even further than the Apollo capsule traveled during the previous lunar missions. A camera attached to the solar panels managed to snap a photo of both the Moon and Earth in a single frame, showing just how small we really are.
Last week, Orion successfully completed an outbound powered flyby burn at 7:44 a.m. to accelerate the spacecraft and harness the force from the Moon’s gravity. This force was then used to direct the s pacecraft toward a distant retrograde orbit beyond the Moon. During this maneuver, Orion achieved its closest lunar approach, flying just 81-miles above the lunar surface.
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Following a successful launch on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, Artemis I is testing the Orion spacecraft on a rigorous mission in the extreme environment of deep space around the Moon before flying astronauts on Artemis II in 2024. Artemis includes a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration at the Moon where the agency will prepare for future missions with crew to Mars,” said the agency.
