The Orion spacecraft orbits the Moon at its lowest altitude.

The test flight should demonstrate the readiness of the SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft for a manned mission.

The American spacecraft Orion flew around the moon as part of a test unmanned flight. On Monday, November 21, the NASA space agency reported.

The live video broadcast was conducted using a camera installed on one of the ship’s solar panels.

“On the Far Side of the Moon, not visible from Earth, at 07:44 US East Coast time (15:44 Moscow time), the main engine was turned on for two and a half minutes. . “Subsequently, after about 13 minutes, Orion flew at an altitude of only 130 km from the surface of the Earth’s natural satellite. As a result of the maneuver, the ship began to gradually move away from the Moon,” the report said.

NASA also noted that the orbit of the Orion spacecraft’s flight over the Moon passed the landing area in the past of the American manned Apollo 11.

Another engine firing is scheduled for next Friday to enter a deep retrograde orbit at an altitude of 64,000 km from the surface of the moon. The ship will remain there for six days. And then it will make another flyby of the Moon at close range, and only then will it head for Earth.

By December 11, Orion would have to crash into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.

The ship is being tested without a crew. On board is a mannequin.

Recall that the spacecraft was launched on November 16 by a Space Launch System super-heavy launch vehicle as part of the Artemis 1 mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Artemis 1 mission got as close as possible to the Moon

News from Correspondent.net on Telegram. Subscribe to our channel Athletistic