NASA praises the "exceeding expectations" performance of the "Orion" capsule on its way to the moon
On the third day of the "Artemis 1" mission, NASA said that the performance of the Orion spacecraft, on its way to the moon, "exceeded expectations."
This new capsule is supposed to transport astronauts to the moon in the coming years, for the first time since the Apollo mission to the moon in 1972.
This test flight, which is unmanned, is intended to ensure that the vehicle is safe.
"We met today to review the performance of the Orion spacecraft (...), which exceeded expectations," said Mike Sarafin, the official in charge of Artemis 1, during a press conference.
For his part, Jim Jeffrey, who is in charge of “Orion” at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said that the four solar panels of the spacecraft, which are about 4 meters long, “were placed in the required place correctly” and “provide more power” than what is needed. It was expected.
The Johnson Center in Houston, Texas, houses the control center from which the spacecraft is operated.
The Orion spacecraft is about 320,000 km away from Earth, and is preparing to perform the first of the four main thrusts scheduled for the mission using its engines.
Approaching the moon
The capsule will approach early Monday morning, only about 100 kilometers from the lunar surface, in order to take advantage of the force of gravity.
The capsule will carry out this mission on the dark side of the moon, and NASA is expected to lose contact with it for about 35 minutes.
"We will pass over some of the Apollo landing sites," said NASA flight director Jeff Radigan, although they will be in shadow. A video of the flight will then be posted.
Four days later, a second thrust by the engines will put Orion into a distant lunar orbit. The vehicle will rise up to 64,000 km behind the moon, which is a record for a habitable capsule.
It will then begin its journey back to Earth, as it is scheduled to touch down in the Pacific Ocean on December 11, just over 25 days into the journey.
The success of this mission governs the future of the next mission, "Artemis 2", which will transport astronauts around the moon without landing, and then "Artemis 3", which will finally allow humans to return to the surface of the moon. These missions are scheduled to be officially completed in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
As Mike Saravin explained, Friday, that 10 accurate scientific satellites had already been deployed when the missile launched, but half of them were suffering from technical problems or communications malfunctions.
These experiments, which are conducted separately by independent teams, have no impact on the main task.
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