NASA's Artemis I Orion Spacecraft Looks to Earth

NASA's Artemis I Orion Spacecraft Looks to Earth

Flight Day 11: NASA’S Artemis I Orion spacecraft captured imagery looking back at the Earth from a camera mounted on one of its solar arrays. The spacecraft is currently in a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. On flight day 11, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2022, at 8:42 a.m EST (13:42 UTC), the Artemis I Orion spacecraft broke the record for farthest distance traveled by a spacecraft designed to carry humans to deep space and to safely return them to Earth. This distance record was previously held by the Apollo 13 spacecraft. 

The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I is an uncrewed flight test that will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration. It will demonstrate NASA's commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond. Orion is completing a 25-day test of all key systems. It will travel 280,000 miles from Earth, thousands of miles beyond the Moon. Orion will stay in space longer than any ship for astronauts has done without docking to a space station and return home faster and hotter than ever before.

On the Artemis III Mission, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone on the way to Mars. 

Learn more about Artemis I at:

https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-1

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Image Date: Nov. 26, 2022

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