Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, Nov. 20 (Xinhua)-- the NASA Space launch system (SLS) launched the Orion spacecraft at 14:47 on November 16, Beijing time. The mission, called Artemis 1, is an unmanned test mission around the moon, preparing for the follow-up of Artemis 2 and Artemis 3.

NASA now provides the latest information on Artemis 1. "so far, Orion has performed well," Jim Geffre, the spacecraft integration manager, said at a news conference at NASA on Friday. "from a performance point of view, all systems have exceeded expectations."

According to reports, the Orion spacecraft will arrive on the moon on November 21, and it will be "closest" to the moon at around 20:15 Beijing time on the 21st. At that time, the spacecraft will perform the first of four main engine burns planned by NASA for the mission, and then Orion will fly in orbit slightly more than 130 kilometers above the moon's surface.

Flight commander Jeff Ladigan said a second engine burning would take place in four days, sending Orion into a distant lunar orbit and eventually placing the spacecraft in Earth's return orbit. If all goes according to plan, Orion will set into the Pacific Ocean on December 11.

The flight marks the first time Orion has broken through Earth's orbit. CTOnews.com learned that the spacecraft completed a two-orbit test flight around the Earth in 2014. A successful flight will pave the way for a manned mission to the moon and eventually boost NASA's goal of returning to the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.

According to public information, there are twelve people landing on the moon in history. In the 41 months since July 20, 1969, two of the six NASA missions have landed on the moon via the Apollo lunar module. The first lunar landings were Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin aboard Apollo 11. On December 14, 1972, Cernan and Jack Schmidt of Apollo 17 were the last people to land on the moon. (Apollo 13 had an accident so he returned to Earth ahead of time)

At the same time, NASA also released a "selfie" of the Orion manned spacecraft on its way to the moon, which looks like a boat, sailing alone in the dark universe. It is reported that the Orion manned spacecraft installed 16 cameras, designed to conduct a comprehensive inspection of the spacecraft, used to record important events during the mission, including images of the earth and the moon.

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