NASA successfully performed a flyby of the moon with their new Orion capsule recently, part of their Artemis mission, which intends to send humans back to the moon this decade.
Though the Orion capsule was unmanned this time around, it provided a great testing for the capsule and its technology, as it flew just 80 miles above the lunar surface.
This mission, Artemis 1, was to test the flyby, making sure systems, communications, and technology functioned properly.
Artemis 2 is scheduled for 2024, and will take astronauts tantalizingly close to the moon, without touching down. If all goes well, Artemis 3 will take astronauts to the surface of the moon in 2025, the first time humans have set foot on the lunar surface since 1972. The mission plans to have humans (and the first woman) on the moon for a week, including the use of a lunar rover.
Stay tuned on NASA’s developments on their website.
Orion is the capsule that will take humans around the moon in 2024, and on the lunar surface in 2025, if all goes well.
That blue dot in the center of the vast blackness? That’s our fragile, only home.
Some of the closest images of the moon in years, provided by the flyby.
A digital recreation of Orion’s flyby around the moon, with Earth in the distance.
Solar panels on the Orion capsule.