This was announced by the US space agency NASA. The orbit is about 80,000 kilometers from the surface of the moon, so “Orion” needs six days for a half-orbit. The capsule will fly around the Moon in the opposite direction from which the Moon revolves around the Earth. According to NASA, the advantage of this orbit is that it is very stable and “Orion” consumes relatively little fuel.
The “Artemis 1” mission, delayed for months, set off for its first test launch on November 16 (local time). The Orion capsule was launched by a Space Launch System rocket from the Cape Canaveral cosmodrome in Florida, USA. A few days ago, it had approached the moon about 130 kilometers as planned during the entire test mission.
The unmanned capsule is said to have been on the road for about two weeks and is expected to return to Earth on December 11 after flying nearly two million kilometers.
The mission hasn’t been under a good star so far: after delays and exploding costs in development and production, the start of testing had to be delayed several times. With the “Artemis” program, named after the Greek moon goddess, US astronauts are expected to land on the moon for the first time in the coming years, including a woman and a non-white person. (SDA)