NASA’s Orion Spacecraft Is Due To Begin Its Flyby Of The Moon On November 21st.
The Orion spacecraft heading to the moon under the Artemis 1 program will make its closest approach to the Earth’s satellite on Monday, November 21.
Orion will fly at an altitude of 130 km above the surface of the moon. According to flight director Jeff Redigan, the spacecraft’s path will pass over some of the landing sites for the Apollo missions.
The upcoming maneuver will be performed using the main engine of the spacecraft. The engine is expected to run for about two and a half minutes.
The engine will be started when Orion flies at an altitude of about 130 km from the surface of the moon. As a result of the maneuver, the ship should enter a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon.
The spacecraft’s engines will be restarted on November 25th. It is planned that Orion will go into orbit at a distance of 432 thousand km from the Earth, where it will spend six days. Then the ship will perform two more maneuvers, again fly near the moon and return to Earth.
The Space Launch System (SLS) super-heavy launch vehicle carrying Orion launched on November 16. This launch was the first mission of the American lunar program “Artemis”. The next launch under this program should be a manned flight on the Orion spacecraft.
