Artemis 1, the Orion capsule “skims” the Moon
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The Orion capsule greeted the Moon in the flyby that brought it to about 130 kilometers from the surface: the confirmation came from NASA, after the vehicle exited the far side of the Moon, reaching a position from which it is possible to resume the contact the control center. The maneuver marks the new crucial stage of the Artemis 1 unmanned mission, launched on November 16 from Cape Canaveral and which marks the beginning of the return to the Moon, in view of future missions with astronauts.
After starting the engines at 13.44 Italian time, when it was on the hidden side, 13 minutes later the Orion capsule reached the minimum distance from the surface of our satellite. Thanks to this manoeuvre, the vehicle has gained the thrust necessary to move away towards a more distant orbit, which at 10.52 pm Italian time on November 25 will bring it to over 432,000 kilometers from the Earth. The orbit in which Orion will then be found is called the distant retrograde orbit (Dro): it is retrograde because the capsule will move around the Moon in the opposite direction to that in which the Moon moves around the Earth, and it is distant because it is at a high altitude above the lunar surface.
From that moment on, a week of tests will begin, the objective of which will be to verify the functionality of the vehicle’s systems in view of future missions with astronauts on board. Overall, by the time of the Moon’s flyby, Orion will have traveled more than 386,000 km, to which another 64,000 will be added when it reaches distant retrograde orbit.
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