The Orion spacecraft, belonging to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), for the first time displayed the target of the test flight carried out within the scope of the Artemis 1 mission. The lens of the camera located on the outside of the spacecraft entered the orbit of the Moon.

In the released video, a half-illuminated moon can be seen in the distance while the Orion body occupies the foreground. At the time this video was recorded, the spacecraft was approximately halfway to our planet’s moon. “On the third day of the Artemis 1 mission, Orion maneuvered the solar panels and captured the Moon with a camera mounted on one end”— NASA said in a statement.

We’ll remind you that Orion was launched into space on November 16 with the aid of a giant Space Launch System rocket, currently the world’s most powerful launch vehicle. The ship should automatically enter the orbit of the moon, fly around, and return to Earth, where it will reenter the atmosphere about 25 days after launch and land near the coast of the United States. The Artemis 1 mission is designed to test the ship’s reliability. If successfully implemented, a team of astronauts will orbit the moon next time as part of the Artemis 2 mission.

Orion’s flight continues without major disruptions. On November 21, the ship is expected to fly as close to the Moon as possible, flying less than 100 km from the satellite’s surface. It will then enter a distant orbit around the Moon where it will spend a few days and follow a course towards Earth.