Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com NASA's Orion spacecraft has sent back some stunning photos of the moon, taken just 130 kilometers above the lunar surface, the closest approach it has come to the moon during its entire mission.

Orion's optical navigation camera captures black-and-white images of craters on the moon On November 16, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket successfully launched the Orion spacecraft, a test flight called Artemis I mission that will put Orion into orbit around the moon and then return to Earth, where it will splash down in the Atlantic Ocean on December 11.

During its flyby, Orion passes by the far side of the moon, which also briefly disconnects it from the operator and allows it to take images of the far side of the moon, which is invisible from Earth. Pictured above is the spacecraft's navigation camera as it approached the lunar surface, and below is a camera on Orion's solar array as the spacecraft passed behind the moon.

"The mission continues to proceed according to our plan, and ground systems, our operations team and Orion spacecraft continue to exceed expectations," Artemis I mission manager Mike Seraphim said at a Nov. 21 news conference.

Now that the close flyby has been completed, the spacecraft is heading farther out toward the moon, ready to enter what is known as a long-range retrograde orbit on Nov. 25. The orbit will be about 92,000 kilometers above the moon's surface, allowing Orion to use less fuel in six days than in a close orbit.

CTOnews.com has learned that Orion, once in lunar orbit, is expected to break the record for the largest distance a spacecraft designed for humans has traveled from Earth, a previous record set by Apollo 13 in 1970 at a distance of about 400,000 kilometers. If all goes well, Orion will orbit the moon with a crew on the Artemis II mission in 2024, and later on Artemis III, which will be used to bring astronauts back to the lunar surface for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.

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