​The Orion capsule successfully reached another mission milestone, as at 6:42 p.m. it briefly came just 128 km from the surface of the Moon, closer than it had been on the sixth day of the mission. Immediately, the engines fired for 3 minutes and 27 seconds to get Orion on a precise trajectory to Earth. The return to Earth is scheduled for December 11.

to Earth The return to Earth is scheduled for December 11.

Two hours before the decisive maneuver, Orion was at a distance of 7,000 km from the surface of the Moon and had a speed of 6,400 km/h.

It will be recalled that Orion was launched on November 16 and reached the Moon on the 21st.

Orion re-entered the Moon’s sphere of influence on December 3 and will leave it on December 6, when it will have five days before returning to Earth.

On December 4, at 18:43, “Orion” made another trajectory correction and slightly increased its speed.

The mission’s final major maneuver occurred on December 5 at 6:43 p.m., a maneuver that changed Orion’s speed by 1,000 km/h. After this 3 minute 27 second maneuver, there will be only minor trajectory corrections for the next few days.

The maneuver was performed by engines (OMS Orbital Maneuvering System) built by Aerojet Rocketdyne.

After this maneuver, NASA lost contact with Orion for 30 minutes, as the module was behind the Moon. Communication was restored at 19.13. At 19:16, Orion was at a distance of 2000 km from the surface of the Moon.

On Monday, Orion came within 128 km of the moon’s surface after several days of orbiting at tens of thousands of kilometers. The mission is almost 26 days long and we are on day 20. On November 21, it was found 130.3 km from the surface of the moon.

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.