This Friday, NASA launched the test flight of the orion capsulewhich entered an orbit extending tens of thousands of kilometers (miles) around the Moon.
The Orion capsule was 380 thousand kilometers (238 thousand miles) from Earth, which is expected to reach a maximum distance of almost 432 thousand kilometers in a matter of days.
Talk about showing both sides of the story. Nice frontback, Orion.
On flight day 9, @NASA_Orion took these images looking forward to the Moon, and back home toward Earth.
More full-res images: https://t.co/pUudalErEr
Track #Artemis I in real time: https://t.co/fCVt3jyqwy pic.twitter.com/bnY0uXbWnh— NASA (@NASA) November 25, 2022
With this distance, the designed capsule will set a new record, hoping that at some point they will be able to take people into space, because for the moment, the ship only has three mannequins on board, starting the flight with a budget of more than 4 billion dollars. dollars, whose goal is to pave the way for astronauts.
“It’s a statistic, but it’s symbolic for what it represents,” Jim Geffre, an Orion manager, said in a NASA interview a few days ago. “It’s about challenging ourselves to go further, stay longer, and push the limits of what we’ve previously explored.”
LIVE NOW: The @NASA_Orion spacecraft is performing a burn to enter a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon, an orbit that is high altitude from the surface of the Moon and opposite the direction of the Moon travels around Earth. #Artemis https://t.co/gknxQkBWFc
— NASA (@NASA) November 25, 2022
Finally, on this flight, a dress rehearsal for the next flight around the Moon in 2024, which will carry astronauts. By 2025, there could be a moon landing with astronauts.
With information from AP