The Orion capsule from NASA’s Artemis 1 mission entered an extended retrograde lunar orbit on Friday and will reach its farthest point on November 28. On Saturday, the capsule broke the record set by Apollo 13 in 1970. The big difference is that Orion does not carry astronauts.
On November 26, the Orion capsule reached more than 400,000 km from Earth, the furthest point ever reached by a human-carrying spacecraft. The previous record dates back to April 1970. This point was reached on Saturday at 14.42.
Orion is in an elongated orbit that keeps it 65-80,000 km from the Moon, and it is now more than 425,000 km from Earth at a speed of 2,700 km/h. Orion continues to move away from Earth, and after 11:00 p.m. Monday, it should reach its furthest point, located 432,000 km from Earth.
Then he will begin the long, nearly two-week journey home.
On December 1, the European Service Module will maneuver Orion out of DRO, and on December 5, the capsule will make another close flyby of the lunar surface.
The final power-up will put Orion on a trajectory toward Earth, a trip that will last nearly six days.
December 11 is the day of the return to Earth, and for NASA employees it will be emotional: the entry into the atmosphere will take place at a speed of almost 40 thousand km / h, and the heat shield will have to withstand 2700 C. High-performance parachutes must open to slow down the capsule’s fall as much as possible in ocean.
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