Artemis: Orion makes a great record and portrait with the Earth-Moon system

NASA freaked out recently when it lost contact with the Orion shuttle for 47 minutes. But despite many problems which has hampered the Artemis I mission since its inception, it remains a huge success for the US space agency.

On Saturday, November 26, 2022, the capsule broke the distance record from Earth for a habitable spacecraft, set in 1970 during the eventful Apollo 13 mission. Astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise had traveled 400,171 km and almost never returned after an oxygen source in the ship’s service module exploded.

Great profile picture of the Earth-Moon system

We have already posted a lot of pictures Since the launch of the SLS rocket carrying Orion on November 16. Marking this record, the spacecraft snapped a very nice keepsake selfie with the Earth and Moon in the background, visible below.

In this recently taken image, the Earth-Moon system appears small in the vastness of space, enough to feel very small. At the time of this shot, it was the capsule, and it currently is in a far retrograde orbit around our natural satellite, about 431,000 km from our planet, just a few kilometers from the farthest distance from Earth of the Artemis I mission (434,500 km).

successful mission?

Orion still has to do before returning to Earth and landing in the Pacific Ocean on December 11th. If the capsule is to start coming back soon, it still has to run tests. The goal of Artemis I is already to prepare for the next circumnavigation of the moon of the ship, which this time will be inhabited. Thus, navigation systems, ship resistance or tracks are tested and analyzed.

To ensure the safety of future astronauts, the onboard spacesuits are also equipped with sensors to measure the level of radiation the crew will be exposed to during the Artemis II mission, scheduled for 2024. During the latter, the astronauts will stay put though. On board the capsule and it will be necessary to wait until 2025/2026 at the earliest, with the Artemis III mission, in the hope of seeing a human being set foot on the moon again.

The goal would then be to establish a permanent human presence on our satellite in order to explore our neighbor, the planet Mars.