The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Orion capsule on Monday made its closest approach to the Moon – within 80 miles (130 km) – since Apollo 17 flew half a century ago. This came a week after Orion reached its farthest point in space – nearly 270,000 miles from Earth while midway through its 25-day mission – the space agency wrote in a blog post on its website.
The Orion spacecraft – that was blasted off on November 16 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Cape Canaveral in Florida – flew above the lunar surface at 11:42 am ET, the US space agency stated. The powered fly burn lasted about 3 minutes and 27 seconds, changing the velocity of the spacecraft by approximately 655 mph (961 feet per second). “The return powered flyby is the last large maneuver of the mission, with only smaller trajectory corrections to target Earth remaining,” NASA said.
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The spacecraft is set to parachute into the sea and splash down on December 11. The space agency has shared a picture of the “Moon and the distant crescent Earth” captured by the Orion spacecraft during the mission.
In another tweet, NASA wrote: “As @NASA_Orion prepares to bid the Moon adieu, the #Artemis I mission says, “Goodnight, Moon!”
The main objective of Orion’s inaugural flight is to test the durability of its heat shield as it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere at 24,500 miles per hour – much faster than spacecraft returning from the International Space Station (ISS).
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Meanwhile, Orion’s launch had kicked off Apollo’s successor program Artemis – which is aimed at returning astronauts to the lunar surface this decade and establishing a sustainable base there as a stepping stone to future human exploration of Mars, reported news agency Reuters.