Five days after starting its journey, Orion has arrived at the moon. NASA announced Monday at 07:44 ET that the Artemis I capsule was just 80 miles from the lunar surface.
We're approaching the Moon ahead of our powered flyby maneuver during which we'll pass within 80 miles (130 km) of the lunar surface.https://t.co/WsivWWISoL pic.twitter.com/pHqRUI892U
- Orion Spacecraft (@NASA_Orion) November 20, 2022
The maneuver known as an outbound powered flyby, which NASA broadcast live, lasted two and a half minutes. In it, the moon could be seen growing larger and larger as Orion approached the lunar surface to take advantage of the satellite's gravitational pull.
After this, NASA lost contact with the capsule and the three test dummies for half an hour because the spacecraft was passing around the far side of the moon. But flight controllers in Houston were later able to recover the connection thanks to the Goldstone station and are currently studying the development of the maneuver. The conclusions reached will be announced at a press conference to be held at 5:00 p.m. ET, which can be followed on the company's website.
Flight Director Zeb Scoville could not hide his excitement as he witnessed the moment: "This is one of those days that we've been thinking about and talking about for a long, long time," he said during the Orion live broadcast in which the onboard cameras sent back an image showing the Earth as a blue dot surrounded by blackness.
Fly-by complete!@NASA_Orion completed its closest fly-by of the Moon this morning, 81 miles above the lunar surface, traveling 5,102 mph. Before the fly-by, we conducted an outbound powered fly-by burn, increasing speed at a rate of more than 580 mph: https://t.co/gqViM3BJLg pic.twitter.com/9IUkQUj4pf
- Jim Free (@JimFree) November 21, 2022
The journey continues
The mission is not over yet. The capsule will orbit the moon for seven days, as reported by NASA in a statement:
Orion will remain in this orbit for about a week to test spacecraft systems. The distant retrograde will take Orion 40,000 miles past the Moon before it returns to Earth. Orion’s greatest distance from the Earth will be Monday, Nov. 28 at 3:05 p.m. CST at more than 268,500 miles. Orion’s greatest distance from the Moon will be on Friday, Nov. 25 at 3:53 p.m. CST at more than 57,250 miles.
Orion will conclude its journey on December 11, after 25 days in space. On that day it is scheduled to fall over the Pacific Ocean. There, a team of scientists will be waiting for it to collect all the data brought back by the capsule returning from the moon fifty years after man first set foot on it.
