The uncrewed听翱谤颈辞苍听肠补辫蝉耻濒别听of听狈础厂础’蝉听Artemis I mission sailed within 80 miles (130 km) of the lunar surface on Monday, achieving the听肠濒辞蝉别蝉迟听补辫辫谤辞补肠丑听to the听尘辞辞苍听for a spacecraft built to carry humans since Apollo 17 flew half a century ago.
The听肠补辫蝉耻濒别‘s lunar flyby, on the return leg of听颈迟蝉听debut voyage, came a week after听翱谤颈辞苍听reached听颈迟蝉听farthest point in space, nearly 270,000 miles from Earth while midway through听颈迟蝉听25-day mission, the U.S. space agency said on听颈迟蝉听website.
翱谤颈辞苍听passed about 79 miles above the lunar surface on Monday as the spacecraft fired听颈迟蝉听thrusters for a “powered flyby burn,” designed to change the vehicle’s velocity and set it on course for听颈迟蝉听flight back to Earth.
NASA said the 3-1/2-minute burn would mark the last major spaceflight maneuver for听翱谤颈辞苍听before it was due to parachute into the sea and splash down on Dec. 11.
The last time a spacecraft designed for human travel came as close to the听尘辞辞苍听as听翱谤颈辞苍听was the final mission of the Apollo program, Apollo 17, which carried Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt to the lunar surface 50 years ago this month. They were the last of 12 NASA astronauts who walked on the听尘辞辞苍听during a total of six Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972.
Although听翱谤颈辞苍听has no astronauts aboard – just a simulated crew of three mannequins – it flew farther than any previous “crew-class” spacecraft on the 13th day of听颈迟蝉听mission. It reached a point 268,563 miles from Earth, nearly 20,000 miles beyond the record distance set by the crew of Apollo 13 in 1970, which aborted听颈迟蝉听lunar landing and returned to Earth after a nearly catastrophic mechanical failure.
The much-delayed and highly anticipated launch of听翱谤颈辞苍听last month kicked off Apollo’s successor program Artemis, aimed at returning astronauts to the lunar surface this decade and establishing a sustainable base there as a stepping stone to future human exploration of Mars.
If the mission succeeds, a crewed Artemis II flight around the听尘辞辞苍听and back could come as early as 2024, followed within a few years by the program’s first lunar landing of astronauts with Artemis III. Sending astronauts to Mars is expected to take at least another decade and a half to achieve.
“We couldn’t be more pleased about how the spacecraft has been performing really beyond all our expectations,” Debbie Korth, deputy manager for听狈础厂础’蝉听翱谤颈辞苍听program, told reporters in a news briefing on Monday.
翱谤颈辞苍听was carried to space atop听狈础厂础’蝉听towering, next-generation Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which blasted off on Nov. 16 from听狈础厂础’蝉听Kennedy Space Center on Cape Canaveral, Florida.聽
The mission marked the first flight of the combined SLS rocket and the听翱谤颈辞苍听capsule, built by Boeing Co.聽and Lockheed Martin Corp., respectively, under contract with NASA.
The chief objective of听翱谤颈辞苍‘s inaugural flight is to test the durability of听颈迟蝉听heat shield as it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere at 24,500 miles per hour, much faster than spacecraft returning from the International Space Station. – Reuters
