The Orion spacecraft in NASA’s Artemis I mission marks a significant milestone on its journey to lunar orbit with impressive selfie footage.
The Orion spacecraft captures a selfie video with the Moon. (Video: NASA)
In a video released on November 18, the half-lit Moon can be seen in the distance behind the Orion spacecraft, with the NASA logo partially obscured by shadow as viewed from a camera mounted on one of the solar panel arrays. At that time, the spacecraft had traveled halfway to lunar orbit.
“On the third day of the Artemis I mission, Orion maneuvered its solar panels and took pictures of the Moon using a camera mounted on the end of the array,” NASA wrote in the video description.
The half-lit Moon is visible in the distance behind the Orion spacecraft, with the NASA logo partially obscured by shadow.
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration launched Orion on November 16 using the Space Launch System (SLS), currently the most powerful rocket in the world. The spacecraft is expected to undertake a 25-day journey to lunar orbit and return to Earth on December 11. NASA is conducting this uncrewed mission as a test flight for its Artemis program to determine if the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft are ready to land astronauts on the Moon by 2025.
To capture this historic test flight, Orion is equipped with 24 cameras placed throughout the exterior and interior of the spacecraft, as well as on the solar panels.
On November 17, NASA also shared a selfie of Orion with Earth taken from 92,000 kilometers away, approximately one-fifth the distance between Earth and the Moon, at a speed of nearly 8,800 kilometers per hour.
As of November 19, the Orion spacecraft was 348,247 kilometers from Earth and 149,746 kilometers from the Moon, traveling through space at a speed of 1,601 kilometers per hour. So far, the flight has been relatively smooth and exceeded the expectations of NASA mission managers, despite minor issues as they learn how the spacecraft operates in deep space.
