Successfully Flying Near The Moon, This Next Is The Orion Mission

Orion has successfully flown near the Moon's orbit. (photo: dock. NASA)

JAKARTA - Exactly Wednesday last week finally became a historic day for NASA because the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket slid into the Moon's orbit carrying the spacecraft, Orion. Now, Orion has managed to fly near that orbit or flyby.

On the Artemis 1 mission, Orion flew unmannedly to orbit the Moon. Despite its success, the spacecraft has not been able to return to Earth.

Orion will enter a stable lunar orbit to conduct some system tests first. It is known, the spacecraft spent the last few days sliding towards Earth's natural satellite.

He lost contact with the crew on Earth while on the far side of the Moon. NASA reported that Orion was reconnected with the Earth Deep Space Network (DSN) station located in California, Spain and Australia at 7:59 a.m. EST last Monday.

Just before that, Orion managed to turn on its orbital maneuver system engine for two and a half minutes to complete the first phase of its orbital insertion. This speeds up the spacecraft to more than 580 miles per hour to 5,102 mph.

Then on Friday this week, Orion will perform another maneuver that takes it into a planned far-backscattering orbit around the Moon. Over the following week, NASA will run trials on Orion to make sure it works properly.

Launching Extremetech, Wednesday, November 23, when it's time to go home, Orion will carry out a series of other engine combustiones for short-range flights to the Moon as it rotates back to Earth.

For your information, Artemis 1 is a fully automated mission, but all future launches of SLS are planned to have a crew.

Artemis 2 will consist of cross-month manned operations, and Artemis 3 will include the first human landing on the Moon in decades.

NASA also plans to use the Artemis launch to deploy Gateway Stations in lunar orbit to ensure a permanent human presence around the Moon.