NASAʼs Orion space capsule reached the Moon for the first time in 50 years.
Sky News writes about it.
The ship flew around the moon and passed by it at a distance of 128 km. As a result, flight controllers in Houston lost contact with it for half an hour, meaning they didnʼt know whether the critical engine had successfully fired until the capsule had passed the moon and the on-board cameras sent images back to Earth.
After reaching the Moon, the capsule started its main engine, which should take it into lunar orbit in four days. Orion will spend about a week in lunar orbit before heading home and is scheduled to land in the Pacific Ocean on December 11.
- The head of the Orion spacecraft program, Howard Hu, said that already in this decade, people would be able to stay on the moon for a long time.
- In December 2020, NASA named the first 18 astronauts for a mission to the Moon, including nine women.