NASA’s “Orion” space capsule approached the moon to within about 80 miles (130 km) on Monday. The unmanned capsule then began its return journey to Earth, as the space agency NASA announced on its website. Almost three weeks ago, the capsule was launched from the US state of Florida as part of the Artemis 1 mission.
In the vicinity of the moon, “Orion” tested several maneuvers that will be used in later Artemis missions to return people to the celestial body. The capsule is expected to take astronauts to the moon in the coming years – the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
Although “Orion” flew over some of the Apollo landing sites on the moon, it was still too high to see landing stairs or other remains of the astronauts left behind 50 years ago.
A week ago, the capsule broke the distance record for a habitable space capsule when it traveled about 450,000 kilometers from Earth. According to NASA, the Orion capsule will make only minor course corrections before landing in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 11.
The follow-up mission Artemis 2 should then put astronauts in orbit around the moon. With Artemis 3, a new moon landing should be successful in 2025 at the earliest.
Source: Krone
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