NASA’s Homeward-Bound Orion Spacecraft Captures Last Stunning Image Of Moon

On the 19th day of the historic Artemis I mission, a camera mounted on the uncrewed Orion spacecraft captured a stunning image of the moon. 

Mission Time: 19 days, 11 hrs, 39 min
Orion is 243,167 mi from Earth, 5,132 mi from the Moon, cruising at 1,202 mph.
P: 175493, 159868, 68671
V: 1001, 17, -666
O: 25º, 15º, 313º
What’s this? https://t.co/voR4yGy2mg #TrackArtemis pic.twitter.com/DQFiNcYUTW

— Orion Spacecraft (@NASA_Orion) December 5, 2022

The Orion spacecraft performed a powered flyby burn of the moon — the longest so far — as it’s now on its final stretch of the 25-day mission. 

“We’ve completed our return-powered flyby burn and are heading home!” NASA tweeted. 

Orion will travel 238,900 miles back to Earth, and reentry into the atmosphere is expected on Dec. 11 — with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. If successful, the spacecraft would complete a 1.3 million-mile space mission. This would allow astronauts to make the journey in the Artemis II mission in 2024 and return to the lunar surface by 2025. 

NASA has said the mission has yet to experience major issues. There was a minor issue when the spacecraft lost communication for about an hour.