Out of contact on the far facet of the moon, NASA's unpiloted Orion crew capsule carried out a vital rocket firing and lunar flyby Monday, flinging the craft towards a distant orbit for exams supposed to pave the way in which to a piloted flight in 2024.
NASA managers met Saturday, 4 days after Orion's sky-lighting launch, and gave flight controllers a "go" to proceed with Orion's "outbound powered flyby" maneuver, a two-and-a-half-minute firing of the spacecraft's principal engine beginning at 7:44 a.m. EST Monday.
Dramatic stay video from cameras mounted on the spacecraft confirmed Earth slowly approaching the limb of the moon after which disappearing as Orion handed out of contact behind the moon at 7:25 a.m. Nineteen minutes later, nonetheless out of contact, Orion executed the engine firing by itself as deliberate.
A couple of minutes after that, the spacecraft made its closest strategy to the moon at an altitude of about 81 miles, transferring again into contact with flight controllers at 7:59 a.m. A putting picture from one in every of Orion's cameras confirmed Earth as a small blue orb floating within the deep black of area 230,000 miles away.
Now outbound, the spacecraft handed virtually immediately over the Apollo 11 touchdown web site within the Sea of Tranquility about an hour after the OPF rocket firing.
A second firing of Orion's principal engine Friday at 4:52 p.m. will put Orion within the deliberate "distant retrograde orbit," or DRO, so named as a result of the spacecraft will likely be transferring from left to proper, past the moon, as considered from Earth.
Six days later, a 3rd principal engine firing will ship Orion again towards the moon for a second powered flyby on December 5. That fourth and last burn will put the spacecraft on a course again to Earth with splashdown within the Pacific Ocean west of San Diego anticipated at 12:40 p.m. EST on Dec. 11.