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NASA’s Orion completes flight around the moon

NASA’s Orion spacecraft completed a flight around the moon on November 21 reaching 81 miles (130 km) above the lunar surface.

NASA reveals that the spacecraft travelled as fast as 5,023 miles per hour (8,083 kilometres per hour) when it began its outbound powered flyby burn.


When Orion passed around the moon it temporarily lost communication with Earth but managed to regain it after connecting with another NASA network.


NASA’s Orion spacecraft is built to take crews deeper into space than ever before. The ongoing mission Artemis I is planned to enable wider human exploration of the Moon and Mars.


In the coming days, Orion shall win NASA’s own record for a spacecraft 400,000 kilometres from Earth, set by Apollo 13 in 1970. The spacecraft shall reach a maximum distance from Earth next Monday at nearly 433,000 kilometres.


The capsule will remain in lunar orbit for almost a week before returning to Earth. The splashdown in the Pacific Ocean is planned for December 11.

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