The Artemis 1 mission, which is the beginning of the entire lunar program NASA, launched the previous Wednesday after two failed attempts (and two more canceled due to hurricanes). In recent days, the US space agency has published several images from the Orion spacecraft taken during a flyby near the moon, but we are seeing them for the first time.
The moon captured from 130 km in new images from the Artemis 1 mission
The photos shown by NASA were taken 21 November (mission day 6), entering initial orbit around the Moon. The Orion spacecraft then approached the Silver Globe at a record distance during the entire Artemis 1 mission. The photos were taken when it was only 130 km from the surface of our natural satellite.
NASA has released images of the Moon taken by the Orion probe during the Artemis 1 mission photo. NASA
Interestingly, the photos were taken with an optical navigation camera and are in black and white. In this way, NASA has tested the operation of the camera in various lighting conditions, to help maintain the correct orientation of the ship in future missions (already crewed) of the Artemis program.
Over 350,000 kilometers from Earth. Orion will now enter a distant retrograde orbit
According to the latest NASA report, on November 24, the Orion probe was 358,872 km from the Earth and 89,832 km from the lunar surface, moving from prêdko¶ci± 4200 kilometers per hour. Friday at 10:52 pm (time Polish) the capsule service module motors will be restarted. This maneuver will allow it to enter the target’s very retrograde orbit around the Moon.
On Saturday, Orion will break the distance-from-Earth record for NASA’s manned spacecraft (Orion is a manned spacecraft, but it didn’t take astronauts aboard as part of the Artemis mission). Currently the record belongs to the Apollo 14 mission and is 400,171 km. On Monday, November 28, Orion will reach its maximum distance from our planet: 432,193 km.
On Dec. 5, Orion will pass close to the lunar surface again (but slightly further than the Nov. 21 flyby) before firing its engines and leaving the Moon’s orbit toward Earth. The return flight will last until 11 December. Then the capsule will enter the atmosphere of our planet and land in the Pacific Ocean.
You can read more about the Artemis 1 mission at Gazeta.pl
