NASA's Orion Spacecraft Sends Back Historic Image Of Earth And Moon Together

Over the last few decades, humanity has managed to see space in unprecedented detail (relatively, at least)! With NASA's Orion spacecraft, humanity is now 430,000 kilometres away from Earth.

On Monday, Orion sent back images that were clicked from its attached camera. The stunning image shows the Earth and Moon in a cosmic dance. "The imagery was crazy," said Rick LaBrode, the Artemis I mission's lead flight director. "It¡¯s really hard to articulate what the feeling is. It¡¯s really amazing to be here, and see that," LaBrode said during a press conference.

NASA

Sending humans to space

NASA's Orion spacecraft is built to carry humans farther than ever in space. "Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities," NASA's website says.

NASA

For now, Orion must return to Earth after passing by the Moon again. It'll need to survive reentry into Earth's atmosphere and then will be recovered off the coast near San Diego on December 11.

Also read: Orion Spacecraft Reaches Farthest Distance From Earth, Breaks 1970¡¯s Apollo 13 Record

As part of the Artemis I mission, Orion has completed 31 of the mission's 124 baseline objectives, according to Mike Sarafin, the mission manager. Of the remaining objectives, half are in progress; with most of these representing challenges needed to overcome by Orion as it returns to Earth.

NASA

The mission is going well. In fact, NASA has added more objectives to push the limits of Orion's performance. For instance, NASA will fire various thrusters for longer than planned to ensure they're functioning as intended.

As NASA plans to put humans on Mars and the Moon (again), such spacecraft will serve as the mission's bedrock - helping humanity becoming an inter-planetary species.

NASA

Also read: NASA¡¯s Orion Spacecraft Successfully Executes Fly By To The Moon

What do you think about this stunning image captured by Orion? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.

References

NASA. (n.d.). Orion Spacecraft. https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/index.html

Berger, E. (2022, November 29). Orion flies far beyond the Moon, returns an instantly iconic photo. Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/11/orion-flies-far-beyond-the-moon-returns-an-instantly-iconic-photo/

Images sourced from https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/