NASA’s Orion capsule shakes the moon in the final step before humans return to lunar orbit: NPR

This screenshot from NASA TV shows NASA’s Orion capsule, left, near the moon, right, on Monday. In the center is the Earth.

NASA via AP

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NASA via AP

This screenshot from NASA TV shows NASA’s Orion capsule, left, near the moon, right, on Monday. In the center is the Earth.

NASA via AP

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA’s Orion capsule arrived on the moon on Monday, circling in the distance and humming over the lunar surface en route to a record-breaking orbit with test dummies for astronauts.

It is the first time a capsule has visited the moon since NASA’s Apollo program 50 years ago and marks a major milestone in the $4.1 billion test flight that began Wednesday. before.

The nearly 81-mile approach occurred when the crew capsule and its three wired dummies were on the far side of the moon. Due to loss of communication for half an hour, flight controllers in Houston didn’t know if the vital engine was working properly until the capsule emerged from behind the moon, 232,000 miles from Earth.

The capsule’s camera sent back a picture of the world – a small blue sphere surrounded by black.

Mission Control commentator Sandra Jones said: “Our light blue dot and its 8 billion inhabitants are now popping up.

NASA said the capsule accelerated in excess of 5,000 mph when radio contact was regained. Less than an hour later, Orion soared above Tranquility Base, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on July 20, 1969.

“This is one of those days that you’ve been thinking about and talking about for a long time,” said flight director Zeb Scoville.

In the early morning, the moon looms ever more dimly in the replayed video, as the capsule closes over the last few thousand miles since exploding from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, atop a powerful rocket The best ever built by NASA.

Orion needed to shoot a slingshot around the moon to gain enough speed to enter the sweeping and deflected lunar orbit. The flight controller evaluated the incoming data to determine if engine activation went as planned. Another shot will put the capsule into that extended orbit on Friday.

Next weekend, Orion will break NASA’s distance record for a spacecraft designed for astronauts — nearly 250,000 miles from Earth, set by Apollo 13 in 1970. And it will continue. continues to move, reaching a maximum distance from Earth next Monday of nearly 270,000 miles.

The capsule will spend nearly a week in lunar orbit, before going home. An amphibious landing in the Pacific is scheduled for 11 December.

Orion has no lunar lander; an encounter won’t happen until NASA astronauts attempt to land on the moon in 2025 with SpaceX’s Spacecraft. Before that, astronauts will tether Orion to make a trip around the moon in early 2024.

NASA managers are delighted with the progress of the mission. They told reporters last weekend that the Space Launch System rocket performed exceptionally well on its initial launch.

However, the 322-foot rocket did more damage than expected at the Kennedy Space Center launch pad. The force from the 8.8-million-pound elevator thrust was so great that it tore through the elevator’s blast door.