NASA capsule flies over Apollo landing sites, heads home

One last time around the moon, the capsule and its test dummies swooped over a couple Apollo landing sites before heading home.

The next flight in a couple years will set the stage for astronauts on the next flight.

The capsule flew within 80 miles of the far side of the moon, using the lunar gravity as a slingshot. It spent a week in the moon.

After emerging from behind the moon and regaining communication with flight controllers in Houston, Orion beamed back photos of a close up moon and a crescent Earth.

"Orion now has its sights set on home," said Mission Control commentator

The landing sites of Apollo 12 and 14 were visited by the capsule. It was too high for the descent stages of the lunar landers to be seen. Two weeks ago, it was too dark for pictures. Daylight was present this time.

The deputy chief flight director said that the nearby craters and other geological features would not be visible in any pictures.

Scoville told reporters last week that it would be a nod to the past.

Officials say the test flight has exceeded expectations. The biggest challenge is hitting the atmosphere at more than 30 times the speed of sound.

NASA's most powerful rocket ever, the Space Launch System or SLS, was used for the first time in November.

Four astronauts will be carried around the moon in the early part of the 20th century. The first lunar landing by astronauts since the end of the Apollo moon program this month will be on the third mission.

Apollo 17 rocketed away from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on December 7, 1972. Three days on the moon was the longest stay of the Apollo era. There is only one survivor.

That's right.

The story has been changed to say that the Apollo sites were 1,200 miles above the moon.

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