Artemis I has Completed its First Flyby of the Moon

The first close flyby of the moon was made on Monday, November 21st, and it came as close as 81 statute miles from the lunar surface.

Artemis is hunting the Moon and this burn is the largest so far.

The outbound flyby burn is the first of two maneuvers needed to get to the far side of the moon. The engines on the European Service Module will be used. For about a week, the spaceship will remain in this location. The distant will go past the moon. The greatest distance from the Earth will be on November 28. The total distance is more than 268,500 miles. The greatest distance from the Moon will be on November 25th. There are more than 57,250 miles. This is the farthest a human-rated craft has traveled.

The SLS rocket and the ground systems for the Artemis I mission have been reviewed by the team. He said the results were "eye watering."

"We haven't seen a single thing that would cause us to question any part of the mission." This is mostly a green light flight. The vehicle systems are clean, but we are working a few funnies, just that some things were operating differently than anticipated. The mission is continuing as planned.

The imagery of the Moon was sent back by the cameras on board the spaceship.

"An Earthrise of our pale blue dot and its 8 billion human inhabitants now coming into view", said Mission Control commentator.

Judd Frieling, the Ascent and Entry Flight Director for Artemis 1, said that they didn't expect to get livestream video like they did. We will broadcast the livestream from the mission when we have enough bandwidth.

The Artemis 1 flight is the first mission in 50 years where a human capable vehicle is at the moon. To send astronauts back to the moon, NASA wants to use the SLS and other hardware built by other companies. There is a chance that the first lunar landing could happen as early as 25 years from now.

The splashdown of Orion is scheduled for December 11. Engineers have been able to assess the exterior of the European Service Module using the cameras on the solar array. Re-entry has already been given the go-ahead.

The recovery forces will be deployed at a joint effort between the US Navy and NASA. The recovery zone will be in the Pacific Ocean, but the exact landing site will be determined by a number of factors.

NASA's Artemis is a good place to keep an eye on the flight.