Orion spacecraft, launched by NASA on its Artemis I mission, broke the record for the farthest distance from Earth traveled by human-rated spacecraft.
The record was broken after the capsule entered a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon, circling it at the distance of aproximately 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers).
Orion entered the Moon’s orbit on November 26, 2022, on the 10th day after the launch.
According to NASA, later that day the spacecraft reached 248,655 miles (432,194 kilometers) from Earth, the record set by Apollo 13 mission in 1970.
The distance kept increasing, and by November 17 – 11 days and 12 hours into the mission – Orion was at 263,819 miles (424,576 kilometers) from Earth.
Mission Time: 11 days, 12 hrs, 27 min
Orion is 263,819 miles from Earth, 46,325 miles from the Moon, cruising at 1,783 miles per hour.
P: (147043, -194521, -110657)
V: (1652, 636, 213)
O: 2º, 83.9º, 12.1º
What’s this? https://t.co/voR4yGgqXG #TrackArtemis pic.twitter.com/ikPYhUUiIw— Orion Spacecraft (@NASA_Orion) November 27, 2022
Orion will continue circling the Moon for a week, before exiting the orbit and heading back to Earth.
Launched on November 16, 2022, aboard the world’s most powerful rocket – the SLS – the Artemis I is the first in a series of missions intended to culminate in a manned Moon landing.
Artemis I is a test of both the SLS and the Orion spacecraft, designed to explore the limits of both systems before further flights in 2023 and 2024.
