Space capsule Orion reaches moon, last major step before lunar orbit

On its route to a record-breaking lunar orbit, NASA's Orion spacecraft arrived at the moon on Monday, flying around its backside and passing within 80 miles (128 km) of it. The crew capsule and its three test subjects were on the moon's far side when the close encounter took place. When the capsule emerged from behind the moon, more than 232,000 miles (375,000 km) from Earth, flight controllers in Houston were unable to determine whether the crucial engine firing proceeded as planned due to the half-hour contact blackout.

UPDATE: The coverage of @NASA_Orion’s outbound powered flyby of the Moon will begin on Nov. 21 at 5:15am ET (10:15 UTC): https://t.co/lWecM3PxEX

— NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) November 21, 2022

Since NASA's Apollo programme 50 years ago, no spacecraft has reached the moon. This marks a significant accomplishment for the $4.1 billion test flight that started last Wednesday. The first three lunar landings by humanity, Apollo 11, Apollo 12, and Apollo 14, were all passed by Orion on its flight path.

As the spacecraft travelled its final few thousand miles after taking out last Wednesday from Florida's Kennedy Space Center atop the most potent rocket ever developed by NASA, the moon grew larger in the footage that was sent back earlier in the morning. Zeb Scoville, the flight director, stated as they waited to make contact, "This is one of those days you've been dreaming about and talking about for a long, long time."

Orion had to slingshot around the moon to gather enough speed to enter the wide, uneven lunar orbit. The capsule will arrive in that orbit by Friday following another engine firing, if all goes as planned.

Apollo 13 achieved the record for the most distance travelled by an astronaut-designed spacecraft in 1970, covering about 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometres). On the upcoming weekend, Orion will surpass this record. And it will continue to go, reaching its farthest point from Earth at about 270,000 miles next Monday (433,000 kilometers).

The spacecraft will spend nearly a week in lunar orbit before returning to Earth. On December 11, a splashdown in the Pacific is expected.