NASA’s Orion Spacecraft Successfully Enters Moon’s Orbit

Orion will take about a week to complete half of its orbit around the Moon

Washington:

Officials said NASA’s Orion spacecraft was put into lunar orbit on Friday, as the much-delayed Moon mission successfully proceeded.

The US space agency said on its website more than a week after the spacecraft blasted off from Florida towards the Moon, flight controllers have “successfully performed a burnout to put Orion into orbit”. religion is far back”.

LIVE NOW: The @NASA_Orion the spacecraft is doing combustion to enter a far retrograde orbit around the Moon, an orbit high above the Moon’s surface and opposite to the direction the Moon moves around the Earth. #Artemishttps://t.co/gknxQkBWFc

– NASA (@NASA) November 25, 2022

The spacecraft will send astronauts to the Moon in the coming years — the first to set foot on its surface since the last Apollo mission in 1972.

This first test flight, with no crew on board, was aimed at ensuring the vehicle was safe.

“The distant orbit in which Orion will fly is about 40,000 miles above the Moon,” NASA said.

While in lunar orbit, the flight controller will monitor key systems and perform checks while in the deep space environment, the agency said.

Orion will take about a week to complete half of its orbit around the Moon. It will then exit orbit to return home, according to NASA.

On Saturday, the craft is expected to travel more than 40,000 miles beyond the Moon, a record for a habitable capsule. The current record is held by the Apollo 13 spacecraft at 248,655 miles (400,171 km) from Earth.

It will then begin its journey back to Earth, with a Pacific landing scheduled for December 11, after just over 25 days of flight.

The success of this mission will determine the future of the Artemis 2 mission, which will take astronauts around the Moon without landing, followed by Artemis 3, which will eventually mark the return of the moon. man on the surface of the moon.

Those missions are expected to take place in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)