The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced on November 26 (Japan time, the same is true below) that the new “Orion” spacecraft, which is undergoing unmanned flight tests, has been successfully placed in the lunar orbit. NASA plans to conduct various inspections of the deep space environment as the Orion spacecraft completes a semicircle around the moon in about a week.
The Orion spacecraft was launched on November 16, 2022 with the first new “SLS (Space Launch System)” rocket to conduct unmanned flight tests on NASA’s “Artemis 1” mission. After launch, the Orion spacecraft entered orbit toward the moon and approached the lunar surface on the far side of the moon at about 81 miles (about 130 km) on Nov. 21.
At 06:52 on November 26, the Orion spacecraft corrected its trajectory with an engine burn lasting 1 minute 28 seconds and entered an orbit called DRO (Distant Retrograde Orbit). The DRO orbits in the opposite direction to the moon’s orbit and is highly stable.
Additionally, the Orion spacecraft that entered DRO will pass through a point 248,655 miles (about 400,171 km) from earth at 11:25 p.m. on Nov. 26. This distance is the furthest ever achieved 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 which reached its furthest point from Earth at 268,552 miles (432,192 km) at 6:48 a.m. on Nov. 29.
The Orion spacecraft is expected to leave the DRO on December 2 and return to Earth on December 12.
connection:Beautiful “Earthrise” video taken from NASA’s Orion spacecraft
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