NASA’s Orion spacecraft, part of the Artemis I mission, reached its maximum distance from Earth Monday afternoon, setting the record for the longest distance ever traveled by a human-carrying spacecraft.
This was announced by NASA, reported Ukrinform citing CNN.
It was recorded that the Orion capsule reached the midpoint of its unmanned mission around the Moon, about 434,523 kilometers from Earth. Thus, the ship surpassed the previous record of 400,171 km from Earth, set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
As reported by Ukrinform, the Orion spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral spaceport on 16 November at 01:47 local time. It reached Earth orbit shortly afterward, and 87 minutes after launch, Orion maneuvered to enter lunar orbit.
On Monday, November 21, Orion moved as close as possible to the Moon at a distance of 130 kilometers to accelerate its return journey to Earth by gravitational maneuver. This fairly close approach was caused by the spacecraft and three test dummies being on the far side of the Moon.
NASA’s spacecraft will spend about a week in lunar orbit before heading home, and is scheduled to land in the Pacific Ocean on Dec.
The mission is designed to be a flight test of the Space Launch System rocket, the Orion spacecraft and associated ground control systems prior to the Artemis 2 and 3 missions scheduled for 2024 and 2025, respectively.
The mission’s ultimate goal is to return man to the moon.