NASA is getting ready to make history again, the Artemis 1 mission successfully reached the lunar orbit, successfully performed the orbital maneuvers and now will remain in Lunar orbit for about a week.
Orion spacecraft. Source: Wikipedia.org.
Recall that NASA's Artemis I mission was finally launched on November 16, after being suspended three times due to fuel spills and bad weather, and that this is an unmanned mission intended to test the Orion spacecraft systems under deep space flight conditions as well as to test the Earth re-entry and recovery systems after splashdown, before a manned flight with the Artemis II mission can take place.
As reported by NASA, on the sixth day of the Artemis I mission the Orion spacecraft successfully completed its fourth engine ignition for trajectory correction, the first three ignitions were used to test the spacecraft's three types of thrusters, the first ignition tested the large engine of the maneuvering system, the second ignition used the small thrusters of the reaction system, and the third was performed with the auxiliary engines.
With this fourth ignition the spacecraft's speed increased from 2,128 mph to 5,102 mph, and thus the Orion spacecraft completed one of the two maneuvers necessary to enter a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. It then completed the flyout at 6:44 a.m. on November 21, enabling it to fly about 81 miles above the lunar surface by 6:57 a.m. A couple of hours after the launch maneuver, the spacecraft hovered 1,000 miles above the site called Tranquility Base, the Apollo 11 lunar landing site, and shortly thereafter flew over the Apollo 14 and Apollo 12 lunar landing sites.
A portion of the far side of the Moon as seen from the Orion spacecraft on its sixth day of the Artemis I mission. Source: NASA.
On November 22, the seventh day of the Artemis I mission, the Orion spacecraft performed flight tests around the Moon, paving the way for the next Artemis program mission to be crewed. During this day, the spacecraft completed a fifth trajectory correction using the European Service Module. This module has 33 engines of various sizes that provide the spacecraft with propulsion capabilities and allow it to maneuver around the Moon.
The next maneuver called "distant retrograde orbit insertion burn" will be performed this Friday, Nov. 25, which is expected to take Orion about 57,287 miles past the Moon, and it will maintain this orbit for about a week. This type of maneuver is used to provide a stable orbit for the spacecraft to consume less fuel, but in this case it will be the farthest orbit ever attempted; this will be done in order to test the systems during a prolonged trip in an extreme environment beyond the Moon, and with which they will surpass the record held so far by Apollo 13.
Meanwhile, the flight control team in Houston continues to test the tracking and optical navigation systems, which in addition to providing images are responsible for locating the spacecraft in space at all times, where it is pointing and where it is going, controlling propulsion so that the spacecraft does not go off course. These systems are part of an advanced guidance system that could bring the spacecraft back if it loses communication with the ground team.
Well friends, let's hope that the mission continues to develop as planned and soon mankind will set foot on the Moon again. See you next time!
NASA. Artemis I