Earthset from Orion
Explanation:
Eight billion people
are about to disappear in this
snapshot
from space
taken on 2022 November 21.
On the
sixth
day of the Artemis I mission,
their home world is setting behind the Moon's bright edge as viewed by
an
external
camera
on the outbound Orion spacecraft.
Orion was headed for a powered flyby that
took it to within 130 kilometers of the lunar surface.
Velocity gained in the flyby maneuver was used to reach a
distant
retrograde orbit
around the Moon.
That orbit is considered distant because it's another 92,000 kilometers
beyond the Moon, and retrograde because the spacecraft
orbited in the opposite direction of the Moon's orbit around planet Earth.
Orion entered its distant retrograde orbit on November 25.
Swinging around the Moon,
Orion reached a maximum distance (just over 400,000 kilometers)
from Earth on November 28, exceeding a record set by
Apollo 13 for most distant
spacecraft designed for
human space exploration.
The Artemis II mission,
carrying 4 astronauts around the moon and back
again, is scheduled to launch no earlier than September 2025.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
