NASA’s Artemis 1 mission reaches furthest distance from Earth
432,194 kilometers from Earth
In lunar orbit: NASA’s Artemis 1 mission reaches furthest distance from Earth
The Earth and Moon are seen from the Orion capsule in this image provided by the US space agency Nasa.
© Source: Uncredited/NASA/AP/dpa
Washington. Around two weeks after the start of the “Artemis 1” moon mission, the unmanned “Orion” capsule has reached its furthest distance from Earth. The capsule was around 432,194 kilometers from Earth in its orbit around the moon on Monday, the US space agency Nasa said at a press conference. There has not yet been a further distance from Earth in the previous two weeks of the test mission – and that is not planned for the remaining two weeks either.
NASA boss Bill Nelson spoke of the mission’s “extraordinary success” so far. “It’s incredible how smoothly the mission has gone so far.” The Orion capsule set a distance record on Saturday, exceeding 249,000 miles (around 400,000 kilometers) from Earth. According to NASA, this was the farthest distance ever traveled by a human-made spacecraft. The previous record was set more than 50 years ago by the “Apollo 13” mission with 248,655 miles.
Artemis is to fly to the moon
After months of postponements, the “Artemis 1” mission set off for a first test launch on November 16 (local time). The “Orion” capsule was launched from the Cape Canaveral cosmodrome in the US state of Florida with the “Space Launch System” rocket. The mission was halfway on Monday, the capsule is scheduled to leave the orbit around the moon on Thursday and land in the Pacific on December 11 after flying around two million kilometers.
With the “Artemis” program, named after the Greek goddess of the moon, US astronauts are to land on the moon again in the coming years, including for the first time a woman and a non-white person.
RND/dpa
