The Artemis 1 mission is continuing as planned, with the uncrewed capsule performing a critical course correction maneuver Monday morning. During the flyby, the capsule came to within 80 miles of the moon.
The Artemis 1 capsule entered into the lunar sphere of influence on Sunday and is now in the process of reaching its final destination. The first powered burn to enter DRO happened Monday morning.
The engines on the orbital maneuvering system went into action at 7:44 a.m. At the time, he was moving at a rate of 8,064 km per hour. The closest lunar approach of the Artemis 1 mission was marked by the capsule passing just 81 miles above the Moon. The moon is moving away from the sun at an average speed of 8,211 km/h.
The distance between the Moon and the Earth is known as the retrograde distance. According to NASA, this is a "very stable" and "allows a spacecraft to reduce fuel consumption and remain in position while traveling around the moon."
The ground stations lost contact with the spaceship at 7:26 a.m. as it passed behind the moon. The Deep Space Network re-established contact 34 minutes later. A real-time tracker is being provided by the space agency.
The second of the two course correction maneuvers is scheduled for Friday, November 25, at 4:52 p.m., with the European Service Module again kicking in. NASA will conduct further tests of the system after this maneuver puts it into a distant retrograde position. Before it heads back, the spaceship will travel past the Moon. The spaceship is supposed to return to Earth on December 11.
The flight director at NASA said that Artemis 1 has been a very clean mission. Most of the anomalies the team worked through are benign. Sarafin said that Orion is doing better than expected. The vehicle is using less power than anticipated and collecting more power.
Artemis 1 is a demo mission in which NASA is evaluating its new Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spaceship, the latter of which must still survive reentering through Earth's atmosphere. A successful mission would set the stage for Artemis 2, in which a crew will attempt a trip to the Moon and back, and Artemis 3, which will attempt to land a man and woman on the moon.
Photos of NASA's megarocket launch to the moon.
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