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The historic Artemis I mission, which sent a new spacecraft on a new journey around the moon, is now on its last leg of its historic journey.
Orion, as NASA’s new space capsule is called, made another flyby of the Moon’s surface early this morning, capturing views of notable lunar sites, coming between the two Apollo sites. It then passed just 80 miles (128.7 kilometers) above the lunar surface, its second closest flyby of the moon.
After this Orion ignited its engine for about three and a half minutes – the longest burn on its journey thus far. He placed the burning box engine on his last track home, kicking off the last leg of the 25 and a half day journey.
The Artemis 1 mission took off on November 16, when NASA’s beleaguered and long-delayed Orion Launch System (SLS) rocket rocketed into space, cementing its status as the most powerful operational launch vehicle ever built. The thrust of the SLS rocket exceeded that of the Saturn V rocket, which was the power of the 20th century moon landings, by 15%.
The Orion rocket separated after reaching space and was on its way around the moon. The capsule entered about a week ago, in what is called a “retrograde orbit,” a “backward distance” around the moon, allowing it to fly more than 40,000 miles (64,374 kilometers) beyond the moon’s surface. That’s farther than any human-carrying starship has ever flown.
The spacecraft is now set to traverse the 238,900-mile (384,400-kilometer) vacuum of space between the moon and Earth. It is expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere by December 11, a process that will create enough pressure to heat its exterior to more than 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius).
If the astronauts were in the ships, they would be protected from the heat of the lightning.
Orion is traveling at 20 miles per hour (32,187 kilometers per hour), or more than 26 times the speed of sound. All of that energy will be dissipated as the capsule crashes back into Earth’s dense inner atmosphere and then parachutes into its ever-slower descent before jettisoning itself into the Pacific Ocean.
All told, the Orion capsule will travel more than 1.3 million miles in space.
NASA has been preparing for this mission for more than a decade. After its completion, the space agency will then look to fly the Artemis II crewed mission, which could take off as soon as 2024. Artemis II will aim to send astronauts on a similar trajectory as Artemis I, flying around the moon. but not through the surface.
That in turn could pave the way for the Artemis III mission, which is now slated for a 2025 launch — and is expected to put the first woman and person of color on the moon. The first half is also known as the visit of humans to the lunar surface.
Orion’s operating space is “excellent,” Howard Hu, Orion’s program manager, told reporters last week.
The intervening space was causing some minor issues to bother them, including an unexpected blackout that lasted almost an hour. But NASA officials said there were no major problems and therefore the mission grew as a resounding success.
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