Apollo's Successor Begins the First Leg of Its Journey Back to Earth...

NASA

Artemis I Flight Day 16 – Orion Successfully Completes Distant Retrograde Departure Burn (News Release)

Orion has left its distant lunar orbit and is on its return journey home. The spacecraft successfully completed the distant retrograde departure burn at 3:53 p.m. CST, firing its main engine for 1 minute 45 seconds to set the spacecraft on course for a close lunar flyby before its return home.

The burn changed Orion’s velocity by about 454 feet per second and was performed using the Orion main engine on the European Service Module. The engine is an orbital maneuvering system engine modified for use on Orion and built by Aerojet Rocketdyne.

The engine has the ability to provide 6,000 pounds of thrust. The proven engine flying on Artemis I flew on 19 space shuttle flights, beginning with STS-41G in October 1984 and ending with STS-112 in October 2002.

The burn is one of two maneuvers required ahead of Orion’s splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on December 11. The second will occur on Monday, December 5, when the spacecraft will fly 79.2 miles above the lunar surface and perform the return powered flyby burn, which will commit Orion on its course toward Earth.

Teams also continued thermal tests of the star trackers during their eighth and final planned test. Star trackers are a navigation tool that measure the positions of stars to help the spacecraft determine its orientation.

In the first three flight days of the mission, engineers evaluated initial data to understand star tracker readings correlated to thruster firings.

A trajectory correction burn is planned for approximately 9:53 p.m. CST today, when Orion’s auxiliary thrusters will fine-tune the spacecraft’s path.

Just after 4:30 p.m. CST on December 1, Orion was traveling 237,600 miles from Earth and 52,900 miles from the Moon, cruising at 2,300 mph.

Source: NASA.Gov

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The Space Launch System Worked Like a Charm on Its First Flight...

Brandon Hancock

Initial Assessment Shows Excellent Performance for Artemis Moon Rocket (News Release)

The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket performed with precision, meeting or exceeding all expectations during its debut launch on Artemis I. The world’s most powerful rocket set NASA’s Orion spacecraft on course for a journey beyond the Moon and back, and laying the foundation for the first mission with astronauts on Artemis II and humanity’s return to the lunar surface beginning with Artemis III.

“The first launch of the Space Launch System rocket was simply eye-watering,” said Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager. “While our mission with Orion is still underway and we continue to learn over the course of our flight, the rocket’s systems performed as designed and as expected in every case.”

The twin solid rocket booster motors responsible for producing more than 7 million pounds of thrust at liftoff reached their performance target, helping the rocket and spacecraft travel more than 27 miles from its launch site at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and reaching a speed of about 4,000 mph in just over two minutes before the boosters separated. No issues were reported for any of the booster subsystems including its avionics and thrust vector control system used for steering.

Analysis shows the rocket’s core stage and four RS-25 engines, which burned through the stage’s 735,000 gallons of propellants in just over eight minutes, met every expectation during launch as well as in the final minutes of the countdown before liftoff, when the flight computers and software are in control and many dynamic events involving pressurizing tanks, starting the engines, and igniting the boosters, happen in quick succession.

The mega-Moon rocket delivered Orion within about three miles of its planned orbital altitude of 975 by 16 nautical miles, well within the planned range required for the mission, at a speed of approximately 17,500 mph. Analysis shows the rocket’s ascent and in-space software also performed as expected.

The interim cryogenic propulsion stage, the upper stage of the rocket used to perform two burns during the mission to first raise Orion’s orbit and then propel it toward the Moon, performed exactly as planned. The upper stage’s single RL-10 engine, which has powered successful missions to every planet in the solar system and to interstellar space over its more than 50 years in operation, set a single-duration burn record, firing for more than 18 minutes to set Orion precisely on its multi-day outbound trek to intercept Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor.

“Performance was off by less than 0.3 percent in all cases across the board,” Sarafin said.

Engineers will continue conducting more detailed analysis of the Space Launch System's performance over the next several months as the agency continues making progress building and assembling elements for the rocket for Artemis II and beyond.

“I’ve been privileged to lead the team which designed, built, tested and now flown the Space Launch System rocket on its historic first flight, the Artemis I mission,” said John Honeycutt, SLS program manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “With this amazing Moon rocket, we’ve laid the foundation for Artemis and for our long-term presence at the Moon. The performance of the rocket and the team supporting its maiden voyage was simply outstanding.”

The SLS Program is managed by Marshall, and many parts of the rocket were built and tested at Marshall and at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, as well as at Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Engineers at Marshall supported the Artemis I launch real-time from the center’s SLS Engineering Support Center as well as in the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Source: NASA.Gov

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Apollo's Successor Takes a Family Portrait From Lunar Orbit as It Reaches Its Farthest Point from the Earth...

NASA

Artemis I — Flight Day 13: Orion Goes the (Max) Distance (News Release)

NASA’s uncrewed Orion spacecraft reached the farthest distance from Earth it will travel during the Artemis I mission — 268,563 miles from our home planet — just after 3 p.m. CST. The spacecraft also captured imagery of Earth and the Moon together throughout the day, including of the Moon appearing to eclipse Earth.

Reaching the halfway point of the mission on Flight Day 13 of a 25.5-day mission, the spacecraft remains in healthy condition as it continues its journey in distant retrograde orbit, an approximately six-day leg of its larger mission thousands of miles beyond the Moon.

“Because of the unbelievable can-do spirit, Artemis I has had extraordinary success and has completed a series of history-making events,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “It’s incredible just how smoothly this mission has gone, but this is a test. That’s what we do – we test it and we stress it.”

Engineers had originally planned an orbital maintenance burn today but determined it was not necessary because of Orion’s already precise trajectory in distant retrograde orbit. Based on Orion’s performance, managers are examining adding seven additional test objectives to further characterize the spacecraft’s thermal environment and propulsion system to reduce risk before flying future missions with crew.

To date, flight controllers have accomplished or are in the process of completing 37.5% of the test objectives associated with the mission, with many remaining objectives set to be evaluated during entry, descent, splashdown and recovery.

NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems team and the U.S. Navy are beginning initial operations for recovery of Orion when it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean. The team will deploy Tuesday for training at sea before returning to shore to make final preparations ahead of splashdown.

Managers also closed out today a team formed earlier in the mission to investigate readings associated with the spacecraft’s star trackers after determining the hardware is performing as expected and initially suspect readings are a byproduct of the flight environment.

Flight controllers also have completed 9 of 19 translational burns and exercised the three types of engines on Orion – the main engine, auxiliary thrusters and reaction control system thrusters. Approximately 5,640 pounds of propellants have been used, which is about 150 pounds fewer than prelaunch expected values.

More than 2,000 pounds of margin remain available beyond what teams plan to use for the mission, an increase of more than 120 pounds from prelaunch expected values. So far, teams have already sent more than 2,000 files from the spacecraft to Earth.

Just before 8 p.m. EST, Orion was 268,457 miles from Earth and 43,138 miles from the Moon, cruising at 1,679 miles per hour.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA

SpaceX’s 26th Commercial Resupply Mission Is Underway at the ISS...

NASA / Kim Shiflett

Moon Microscope, Solar Arrays Launch on NASA’s SpaceX Cargo Ship (Press Release - November 26)

SpaceX’s 26th commercial resupply mission for NASA is on its way to the International Space Station.

Carrying more than 7,700 pounds of science experiments, crew supplies and other cargo, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched on the Falcon 9 rocket at 2:20 p.m. EST Saturday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The cargo spacecraft is scheduled to autonomously dock at the space station around 7:30 a.m. Sunday, November 27, and remain at the station for about 45 days. Coverage of arrival will begin at 6 a.m. on NASA Television, the agency’s website and the NASA app.

Among the science experiments Dragon is delivering to the space station are:

Picture of Health

Moon Microscope tests a kit for in-flight medical diagnosis that includes a portable hand-held microscope and a small self-contained blood sample staining device. An astronaut collects and stains a blood sample, obtains images with the microscope, and transmits images to the ground, where flight surgeons use them to diagnose illness and prescribe treatment.

The kit could provide diagnostic capabilities for crew members in space or on the surface of the Moon or Mars, as well as the ability to test water, food and surfaces for contamination. The hardware may also enable improved medical monitoring on upcoming Artemis missions.

Adding Solar Power

Two International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays, or iROSAs, launched aboard SpaceX’s 22nd commercial resupply mission for the agency and were installed in 2021. These solar panels, which roll out using stored kinetic energy, expand the energy-production capabilities of the space station.

The second set launching in the Dragon’s trunk, once installed, will be a part of the plan to provide a 20% to 30% increase in power for space station research and operations.

These arrays, the second of three packages, will complete the upgrade of half the station’s power channels. iROSA technology was first tested on the space station in 2017.

Roll-out solar array technology was used on NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission and is planned for use on Gateway, a future lunar space station and vital component of NASA’s Artemis program. The iROSA upgrades use the space station as a proving ground for the technology and research needed to explore farther into space.

Big Hopes for Small Tomatoes

A continuous source of nutritious food is essential for long-duration exploration missions, and the typical pre-packaged astronaut diet may need to be supplemented by fresh foods produced in space.

Researchers have been testing a plant growth unit on station known as Veggie and have successfully grown a variety of leafy greens. Veg-05, the next step in that work, focuses on growing dwarf tomatoes.

Building Bigger Structures

On Earth, gravity deforms large objects such as the beams used in large-scale construction. Microgravity enables fabrication of longer and thinner structures without this deformation.

Extrusion demonstrates a technology using liquid resin to create shapes and forms that cannot be created on Earth. Photocurable resin, which uses light to harden the material into its final form, is injected into pre-made flexible forms and a camera captures footage of the process.

The capability for using these forms could enable in-space construction of structures such as space stations, solar arrays and equipment.

The Space Exploration Initiative supports a range of microgravity and lunar research across science, engineering, art and design. The experiment is packed inside a Nanoracks Black Box with several other experiments from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab and is sponsored by the ISS National Lab.

On-Demand Nutrients

Supplying adequate nutrition is a major challenge to maintaining crew health on future long-duration space missions. Many vitamins, nutrients and pharmaceuticals have limited shelf-life, and the ability to make such compounds on-demand could help maintain crew health and well-being.

BioNutrients-2 tests a system for producing key nutrients from yogurt, a fermented milk product known as kefir, and a yeast-based beverage.

The investigation kicks off phase two of the five-year BioNutrients program, headed by NASA’s Ames Research Center and managed by Game Changing Development in NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate. The program began with the launch of BioNutrients-1 in 2019.

BioNutrients-2 employs a smaller system with a heated incubator that promotes growth of beneficial organisms.

The researchers are also working to find efficient ways to use local resources to make bulk products such as plastics, construction binders and feedstock chemicals. Such technologies are designed to reduce launch costs and increase self-sufficiency, extending the horizons of human exploration.

Easing Gravity Transitions

Travelers to space all face the transition from one gravity field to another. On future exploration missions, astronauts may encounter three different gravity fields: weightlessness while traveling in space, the gravity of another planet, and Earth’s gravity when they return.

These transitions can affect spatial orientation, head-eye and hand-eye coordination, balance and locomotion, and cause some crew members to experience space motion sickness.

The Falcon Goggles hardware captures high-speed video of a subject’s eyes, providing precise data on ocular alignment and balance.

These are just a few of the hundreds of investigations currently conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory in the areas of biology and biotechnology, physical sciences, and Earth and space science. Advances in these areas will help keep astronauts healthy during long-duration space travel and demonstrate technologies for future human and robotic exploration beyond low-Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars.

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The @SpaceX #Dragon cargo craft docked to the Harmony module's space-facing port at 7:39am ET today delivering new solar arrays, science experiments, and cargo replenishing the Exp 68 crew. https://t.co/QGRXaRgydv

— International Space Station (@Space_Station) November 27, 2022

Apollo's Successor Has Broken a Record That Was Set in 1970 by NASA's "Successful Failure"...

NASA

Artemis I – Flight Day 11: Orion Surpasses Apollo 13's Record Distance from Earth (News Release)

On day 11 of the Artemis I mission, Orion continues its journey beyond the Moon after entering a distant retrograde orbit on Friday, November 25, at 3:52 p.m. CST. Orion will remain in this orbit for six days before exiting lunar orbit to put the spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth for a Sunday, December 11, splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

Orion surpassed the distance record for a mission with a spacecraft designed to carry humans to deep space and back to Earth, at 7:42 a.m. on Saturday, November 26. The record was set during the Apollo 13 mission at 248,655 miles from our home planet. At its maximum distance from the Moon, Orion will be more than 270,000 miles from Earth on Monday, November 28.

Engineers also completed the first orbital maintenance burn by firing auxiliary thrusters on Orion’s service module at 3:52 p.m. for less than a second to propel the spacecraft at .47 feet per second. The planned orbital maintenance burns will fine-tune Orion’s trajectory as it continues its orbit around the Moon.

Flying aboard Orion on the Artemis I mission is a suited manikin named after a key player in bringing Apollo 13 safely back to Earth. Arturo Campos was an electrical engineer who developed a plan to provide the command module with enough electrical power to navigate home safely after an oxygen tank aboard the service module of the Apollo spacecraft ruptured.

Commander Moonikin Campos is outfitted with sensors to provide data on what crew members may experience in flight, continuing Campos’ legacy of enabling human exploration in deep space.

Artemis builds on the experience of Apollo. With Artemis, humans will return to the lunar surface, and this time to stay.

NASA will use innovative technologies to explore the Moon’s South Pole, and more of the lunar surface than ever before using the Gateway space station in lunar orbit along with advanced spacesuits and rovers. NASA will lead the way in collaboration with international and commercial partners to establish the first long-term presence on the Moon.

Then, we will use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA

The Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Enters a Broad Lunar Orbit That Will Surpass the Distance Record Set by Apollo 13...

NASA

Flight Day 10: Orion Enters Distant Retrograde Orbit (News Release)

Flight Controllers in the White Flight Control Room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston successfully performed a burn to insert Orion into a distant retrograde orbit by firing the orbital maneuvering system engine for 1 minute and 28 seconds at 4:52 p.m. CST, propelling the spacecraft at 363 feet per second. Shortly before conducting the burn, Orion was traveling more than 57,000 miles above the lunar surface, marking the farthest distance it will reach from the Moon during the mission.

While in lunar orbit, flight controllers will monitor key systems and perform checkouts while in the environment of deep space.

The orbit is distant in that Orion will fly about 50,000 miles above the Moon. Due to the distance of the orbit, it will take Orion nearly a week to complete half an orbit around the Moon, where it will exit the orbit for the return journey home.

About four days later, the spacecraft will harness the Moon’s gravitational force once again, combined with a precisely-timed lunar flyby burn to slingshot Orion onto its return course to Earth ahead of splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, December 11.

On Saturday, November 26, the Orion spacecraft will break the record for farthest distance traveled by a spacecraft designed to carry humans to space and safely return them to Earth. This distance is currently held by the Apollo 13 spacecraft at 248,655 miles (400,171 km) from Earth.

Orion was specifically designed for missions to carry humans farther into space than ever before.

On Artemis I, engineers are testing several aspects of the Orion spacecraft needed for deep space missions with crew, including its highly-capable propulsion system to maintain its course with precision and ensure its crew can get home, communication and navigation systems to maintain contact with the ground and orient the spacecraft, systems and features to handle radiation events, as well as a heat shield that can handle a high-speed reentry from the Moon. Both distance and duration demand that the spacecraft must have systems that can reliably operate far from home, be capable of keeping astronauts alive in case of emergencies and still be light enough that a rocket can launch it.

Artemis II will test the systems required for astronauts to live and breathe in deep space. Long duration missions far from Earth drive engineers to design compact systems not only to maximize available space for crew comfort, but also to accommodate the volume needed to carry consumables like enough food and water for the entirety of a mission lasting days or weeks.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA

Happy Thanksgiving to My Fellow Yanks! Apollo's Successor Will Soon Enter a Record-breaking Lunar Orbit...

NASA

Artemis I – Flight Day Nine: Orion One Day Away from Distant Retrograde Insertion (News Release)

Orion is now about one day away from entering into a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. The orbit is “distant” in the sense that it’s at a high altitude approximately 50,000 miles from the surface of the Moon. Due to the distance, the orbit is so large that it will take the spacecraft six days to complete half of a revolution around the Moon before exiting the orbit for the return journey back to Earth.

During the last day in the transit to distant retrograde orbit, flight controllers performed a third in a series of planned star tracker development flight tests relative to the Sun, with a fourth planned for tomorrow. Star trackers are a navigation tool that measure the positions of stars to help the spacecraft determine its orientation.

In the first three flight days, engineers evaluated initial data to understand star tracker readings correlated to thruster firings.

The spacecraft completed its sixth outbound trajectory correction burn at 3:52 p.m. CST, firing the European Service Module’s auxiliary engines for 17 seconds to propel the spacecraft at 8.9 feet per second. This is the final trajectory correction before entering distant retrograde orbit. When in lunar orbit, Orion will perform three orbital maintenance burns to keep the spacecraft on course.

Overnight, engineers will begin a 24-hour test of the reaction control system engines to evaluate engine performance for standard and non-standard thruster configurations. This test will provide data to inform procedures and ensure that the reaction control thrusters can control Orion’s orientation in an alternate configuration if there is an issue with the primary configuration.

Just after 1:42 p.m. CST on November 24, Orion was traveling 222,993 miles from Earth and 55,819 miles from the Moon, cruising at 2,610 miles per hour.

NASA Television coverage of the distant retrograde orbit insertion burn is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. EST on Friday, November 25. The burn is scheduled to take place at 4:52 p.m.

Images are sent down to Earth, and uploaded to NASA’s Johnson Space Center Flickr account and Image and Video Library. When bandwidth allows, views of the mission will be available in real-time via video stream.

Source: NASA.Gov

Europe Has Revealed Its Next Group of Space Explorers...

ESA - P. Sebirot

ESA Presents New Generation of Astronauts (News Release)

The European Space Agency has chosen 17 new astronaut candidates from more than 22,500 applicants from across its Member States. In this new 2022 class of ESA astronauts are five career astronauts, 11 members of an astronaut reserve and one astronaut with a disability.

ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher introduced the members of the 2022 ESA astronaut class, the first new recruits in 13 years, today at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris, France, shortly after the ESA Council at Ministerial level ended.

The ESA astronaut candidates are


ESA

“Today we welcome the 17 members of the new ESA astronaut class 2022. This ESA astronaut class is bringing ambition, talent and diversity in many different forms – to drive our endeavours, and our future.

“The continuous exploration in low-Earth orbit on the International Space Station, going forward to the Moon – and beyond,” said ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher.

ESA’s director of Human and Robotic Exploration, David Parker, added “This is an extraordinary time for human spaceflight and for Europe. After the successful launch of Artemis I with ESA’s European Service Module powering Orion to the Moon, we are on the forefront of human space exploration. We are delighted to have this group of extremely talented people, to continue European science and operations on the International Space Station and beyond.”

ESA’s new astronaut candidates will take up duty at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. They will be trained to the highest level of standards as specified by the International Space Station partners.

Frank De Winne, head of the European Astronaut Centre and ESA’s International Space Station programme Manager said: “We are excited to welcome the new ESA astronaut class of 2022 and I am looking forward to see all these ambitious young career astronaut candidates joining us for their first training at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in spring 2023, going forward to explore and shape space exploration.”

After completion of the 12-month basic training, the new astronauts will be ready to enter the next Space Station training phase and, once assigned to a mission, their training will be tailored to specific mission tasks.

For the first time, ESA has established a reserve pool of astronauts. This reserve list is composed of astronaut candidates who were successful throughout the entire selection process but cannot be recruited at this point in time. Astronauts in the reserve remain with their current employers and will receive a consultancy contract and basic support. They will start basic training in case a flight opportunity has been identified.

ESA also selected one astronaut candidate with a physical disability. He will take part in the Parastronaut Feasibility Project to develop options for the inclusion of astronauts with physical disabilities in human spaceflight and possible future missions.

Source: European Space Agency

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The First Artemis Mission Officially Begins Operations, Paving the Way for the Gateway Lunar Space Station...

NASA

CAPSTONE Forges New Path for NASA’s Future Artemis Moon Missions (Press Release - November 21)

NASA's CAPSTONE spacecraft has completed final maneuvers to place it in its target orbit around the Moon, refining its path in the orbit it arrived at last week.

The spacecraft is now in the operational phase of its pathfinding mission, during which it will test an orbit key to future Artemis missions and demonstrate new technologies for spacecraft operating near the Moon.

“NASA’s partnership with Advanced Space on CAPSTONE is enabling NASA to gain critical, additional capabilities at a lower cost,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “CAPSTONE is part of our new era of human exploration at the Moon, testing the unique orbit planned for the Gateway lunar space station.”

CAPSTONE – short for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment – is a technology demonstration, designed to prove the reliability of new capabilities so that they can be used in future missions. CAPSTONE is the first spacecraft to fly in a near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) and the first CubeSat to operate at the Moon. This orbit is the same planned for Gateway, an upcoming Moon-orbiting space station that will support NASA's Artemis missions.

CAPSTONE will gather data on this orbit for at least six months to support Gateway's operational planning.

"Missions like CAPSTONE allow us to reduce risk for future spacecraft, giving us a chance to test our understanding and demonstrate technologies we intend to use in the future," said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate. "Partnering with innovative U.S. companies, including several small businesses, on CAPSTONE has given us the chance to forge new ground, merging commercial interests with NASA's goals."

CAPSTONE took a four-month journey from launch to orbit – overcoming challenges related to communications and propulsion along the way – and performed an initial orbit insertion maneuver on November 13. In the following days, the CAPSTONE mission operations team, led by Advanced Space of Westminster, Colorado, analyzed data from the spacecraft to confirm it was in the expected orbit and carried out two clean-up maneuvers to refine its track.

In addition to studying this unique orbit, CAPSTONE's mission also includes two technology demonstrations that could be used by future spacecraft. The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System, or CAPS, is a navigational software developed by Advanced Space that would allow spacecraft operating near the Moon to determine their position in space without relying exclusively on tracking from Earth.

CAPSTONE will demonstrate this technology by communicating directly with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been in orbit around the Moon since 2009. CAPSTONE will also demonstrate one-way ranging using a chip-scale atomic clock, which could allow spacecraft to determine their position in space without the need for a dedicated downlink to ground stations.

"We have been working to this point since we started the company over 11 years ago. Getting into this orbit at the Moon validates so much hard work and grit by the combined CAPSTONE mission operations team," said Bradley Cheetham, principal investigator for CAPSTONE and chief executive officer of Advanced Space. "The capabilities we have demonstrated and the technologies still to be matured will support future missions for decades to come."

CAPSTONE launched on June 28, 2022, aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Mahia, New Zealand. After launch, a Photon upper stage raised CAPSTONE's orbit and injected the spacecraft into its ballistic lunar transfer, a long but fuel-efficient trajectory that carried the spacecraft to the Moon over the course of more than four months.

CAPSTONE is commercially owned and operated by Advanced Space. It represents an innovative collaboration between NASA and industry to provide rapid results and feedback to inform future exploration and science missions. The spacecraft was designed and built by Terran Orbital.

Operations are performed jointly by teams at Advanced Space and Terran Orbital. The mission is also supported by Stellar Exploration, Space Dynamics Laboratory, Orion Space Solutions, Tethers Unlimited, Inc. and Morehead State University.

NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program within the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) funds the demonstration mission. The program is based at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.

The development of CAPSTONE’s navigation technology is supported by NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) program, also within STMD. The Artemis Campaign Development Division within NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate funded the launch and supports mission operations.

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NASA

A Human-rated Spacecraft Has Flown Past the Moon for the First Time Since 1972!

NASA TV

Artemis I – Flight Day Six: Orion Performs Lunar Flyby, Closest Outbound Approach (News Release)

On its sixth day into the Artemis I mission, Orion successfully completed its fourth orbital trajectory correction burn using the auxiliary engines at 1:44 a.m. CST ahead of the first of two maneuvers required to enter a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. The first three trajectory correction burns provided an opportunity to fire all three thruster types on Orion with the first using the large orbital maneuvering system engine, the second using the small reaction control system thrusters and the third using the medium-sized auxiliary engines.

Orion completed the outbound powered flyby at 6:44 a.m., passing about 81 miles above the surface at 6:57 a.m. The spacecraft's speed increased from 2,128 mph before the burn to 5,102 mph after the burn.

Shortly after the outbound flyby burn, the spacecraft passed about 1,400 miles above the Apollo 11 landing site at Tranquility Base at 7:37 a.m. Orion later flew over the Apollo 14 site at about 6,000 miles in altitude and then over the Apollo 12 site at an altitude of about 7,700 miles.

“The mission continues to proceed as we had planned, and the ground systems, our operations teams and the Orion spacecraft continue to exceed expectations, and we continue to learn along the way about this new, deep-space spacecraft,” said Mike Sarafin, Artemis I mission manager, in a November 21 briefing at Johnson Space Center.

Orion will enter a distant retrograde orbit beyond the Moon on Friday, November 25 with the second maneuver, called the distant retrograde orbit insertion burn. The orbit is “distant” in the sense that it’s at a high altitude from the surface of the Moon, and it’s “retrograde” because Orion will travel around the Moon opposite the direction the Moon travels around Earth.

This orbit provides a highly-stable orbit where little fuel is required to stay for an extended trip in deep space to put Orion’s systems to the test in an extreme environment far from Earth.

Orion will travel about 57,287 miles beyond the Moon at its farthest point from the Moon on November 25, pass the record set by Apollo 13 for the farthest distance traveled by a spacecraft designed for humans at 248,655 miles from Earth on Saturday, November 26, and reach its maximum distance from Earth of 268,552 miles Monday, November 28.

As of Monday, November 21, a total of 3,715.7 pounds of propellant has been used, 76.2 pounds less than prelaunch expected values. There are 2,112.2 pounds of margin available over what is planned for use during the mission, an increase of 201.7 pounds from prelaunch expected values.

Just after 2:45 p.m. CST on November 21, Orion had traveled 216,842 miles from Earth and was 13,444 miles from the Moon, cruising at 3,489 miles per hour.

Follow along and track Orion via the Artemis Real-Time Orbit Website, or AROW, and watch live footage from the spacecraft. You can find the latest images from Orion on the Johnson Space Center Flickr account.

Source: NASA.Gov

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