NASA probe breaks 50-year-old record Musk wants far-right Republican DeSantis for US president

For example, the Orion capsule set a distance record on Saturday. The US space agency said on Twitter that it was more than 249,000 miles (more than 400,000 kilometers) from Earth. This is the longest distance ever for a man-made spaceship. The previous record was set more than 50 years ago by the “Apollo 13” mission with 248,655 miles, according to a statement.

On the other hand, NASA had already reported on Friday that the unmanned capsule had started its engines as planned during its test flight on Friday and was thus flung into lunar orbit.

This orbit is about 80,000 kilometers from the surface of the moon, therefore “Orion” needs six days for a half orbit. The capsule will orbit the moon in a direction opposite to that in which the moon orbits the earth. According to NASA, this orbit has the advantage that it is very stable and that “Orion” consumes relatively little fuel on it.

After months of delays, the mission “Artemis 1” took off for a first test launch on November 16 (local time). The Orion capsule was launched with the Space Launch System rocket from the Cape Canaveral cosmodrome in the US state of Florida. A few days ago, she had approached the moon to about 80 miles—she shouldn’t be that close to the moon for the entire test mission.

Artemis 1 is powered by the European Service Module (ESM), which also supplies electricity, water and air and keeps the spacecraft at the right temperature. The unmanned capsule would be en route for about two weeks before it is expected to return to Earth on December 11 after flying about two million miles. The propulsion and supply unit must be separated from the crew module on reentry and burn up in the atmosphere.

The current mission will be followed by “Artemis 2” with astronauts on board in 2024. Another flight should take place in 2025 at the earliest, with humans actually setting foot on the moon. The last humans to date flew to the moon in 1972 with the Apollo 17 mission.

In all, the United States was the only country to date to put 12 astronauts on the moon between 1969 and 1972 in its “Apollo” flights – all men. With the ‘Artemis’ program, named after the Greek goddess of the moon, American astronauts should land on the moon again in the coming years, including a woman and a non-white for the first time. (sda/dpa)