Orion Spacecraft Enters The Moon's Far-Off Retrograde Orbit

November 28, 2022 By Jozeph P

(Image Credit Google)

As part of the Artemis I mission, NASA's Orion spacecraft has begun its week-long orbit around the moon by entering orbit. Before upcoming crewed missions—named Artemis II and III, respectively—to the moon and surrounding it, the unmanned spacecraft will be used to test out gear. On Friday, November 25, Orion ran an engine burn for around one and a half minutes to enter this orbit. Orion is 40,000 miles from the moon and in a type of orbit known as a far retrograde orbit, which means it is around the moon in the opposite direction from how the moon orbits the Earth. The spacecraft will complete half an orbit around the moon in one week before returning to Earth thanks to its fuel-efficient orbit, which is far from the moon and requires little fuel to maintain. [caption id="attachment_66936" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Orion Spacecraft

Image credit: Nasa[/caption] According to NASA, Orion will eventually surpass the record for the greatest distance covered by a spaceship intended for humans today, Saturday, November 26. The Apollo 13 spacecraft established the previous record at a distance of 248,655 miles (400,171 km), and Orion is anticipated to go a distance of 270,000 miles, which it should do on Monday. The fuel efficiency of the spacecraft is greater than anticipated, according to Philippe Deloo, manager of the Orion Service Module Program at the European Space Agency (ESA), which provided Orion's service module. [caption id="attachment_66937" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Orion Spacecraft

Image credit: Nasa[/caption] "Many things have impressed us about the module's performance so far," Deloo said. "The European Service Module is functioning more fuel-efficiently than the Artemis mission planners had predicted, and it provides more electrical power while consuming less. "Mission control is relishing stretching the capabilities of Orion and the European Service Module. The European Service Module is performing better than we could have ever imagined, and we have a ton of data to analyze and learn from to make sure we will be sending astronauts to the Moon in the safest and most effective manner. The years of meticulous planning, designing, and construction are paying off.

By Jozeph P

Journalism explorer, tech Enthusiast. Love to read and write.

Orion Spacecraft Enters The Moon's Far-Off Retrograde Orbit

Walmart's GenAI Search Engine: Challenging Google's Dominance in Retail Search

Introducing the MSI Claw Handheld: Your Ultimate Gaming Companion

Uber Increases In-App Ads, Prompting Mixed Reactions from Customers

Apple's iOS 18: A Leap into the AI Era

Google's Regular Pixel 8 Won't Get Gemini Nano AI

MacBook Air M3 Makes Amends for M2's Storage Blunder

Samsung Unveils the Galaxy M15 5G

Elon Musk's xAI to Open-Source Chatbot Grok

Contra: Operation Galuga - A Modern Run-and-Gun Classic

Musk Confirms X's TV App Arrives This Week

Astrobotic Reveals Time and Place of Peregrine Spacecraft Reentry

Spiral in the sky stuns Alaska dwellers

Hype Grows for SpaceX's Starship Orbital Flight Test, but Barriers Remain

Why are the astronauts' suits not white during takeoff?

In 2026, SpaceX's Starship will send a Rover the size of an SUV to the Moon.

NASA's DAGGER could provide early warning of the upcoming powerful solar storm.