NASA‘s Orion spacecraft has successfully performed its first Moon flyby as part of the uncrewed Artemis I mission, to pass within 130 kms of the lunar surface
The Orion spacecraft performed the Moon’s closest flyby on November 21, the US space agency said in a statement late on Tuesday
Orion will enter distant retrograde orbit beyond the Moon on Friday with the second manoeuvre, called the distant retrograde orbit insertion burn
This orbit provides a highly stable orbit where little fuel is required to stay for an extended trip in deep space to put Orion’s systems to the test in an extreme environment far from Earth
Orion will travel about 57,287 miles beyond the Moon at its farthest point from the Moon on November 25, passing the record set by Apollo 13
This orbit provides a highly stable orbit where little fuel is required to stay for an extended trip in deep space to put Orion’s systems to the test in an extreme environment far from Earth
Orion has travelled 216,842 miles from Earth and was 13,444 miles from the Moon, cruising at 3,489 miles per hour
Artemis I is the first integrated flight test of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, an uncrewed Orion spacecraft