A Record Since Apollo 13 Was Just Broken By NASA’s Orion Spacecraft
Since the Space Launch System lifted off on November 16th, the Orion Spacecraft has been busy completing a host of different burns, trajectory maneuvers, tests, and much more. After successfully performing a burn to insert Orion into a distant retrograde orbit, NASA just announced a new record set by the spacecraft.
Specifically, yesterday Orion broke the record for the farthest distance traveled from Earth by a human-rated spacecraft at more than 250,000 miles from the planet. The last time a human spacecraft came anywhere near this distance from Earth was decades ago apart of the Apollo 13 mission. An impressive sign that highlights some of the exciting missions to come after Artemis 1.
Currently, the spacecraft is still traveling even farther from the Earth and setting new records as I speak. This is expected to continue happening until tomorrow the 28th, when the spacecraft reaches its maximum distance from the planet. Not to mention a bunch of other important milestones and tests being completed. Here I will go more in-depth into this new record, what Orion has been up to, what to expect in the coming weeks, and more.
New Distance Record
Just yesterday afternoon NASA tweeted saying, “Houston, we have a new record. On Saturday Nov. 26, at 8:40 a.m. ET, @NASA_Orion broke the record for the farthest distance traveled from Earth of a human-rated spacecraft. The record was previously held by Apollo 13 at 248,655 statute miles from Earth. Go Artemis!” In this case, on the 11th day of the Artemis I mission, Orion continued its journey beyond the Moon after entering a distant retrograde orbit Friday, Nov. 25, at 3:52 p.m. CST. Orion will remain in this orbit for six days before exiting lunar orbit to put the spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth with a scheduled splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, Dec. 11.
Orion surpassed the distance record for a mission with a spacecraft designed to carry humans to deep space and back to Earth, at 7:42 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 26. The record was set during the Apollo 13 mission at 248,655 miles from our home planet. At its maximum distance from the Moon, Orion will be more than 270,000 miles from Earth Monday, Nov. 28. In addition, engineers completed the first orbital maintenance burn by firing auxiliary thrusters on Orion’s service module at 3:52 p.m. for less than a second to propel the spacecraft at .47 feet per second. NASA points out that the planned orbital maintenance burns will fine-tune Orion’s trajectory as it continues its orbit around the Moon.
Assuming everything goes perfectly with the rest of this mission, the next step will be Artemis II with real astronauts. However, an important part of ensuring the safety of the crew is collecting a host of invaluable data from this mission. Flying aboard Orion on the Artemis I mission is a suited manikin named after a key player in bringing Apollo 13 safely back to Earth. Arturo Campos was an electrical engineer who developed a plan to provide the command module with enough electrical power to navigate home safely after an oxygen tank aboard the service module of the Apollo spacecraft ruptured. Commander Moonikin Campos is outfitted with sensors to provide data on what crew members may experience in flight, continuing Campos’ legacy of enabling human exploration in deep space.
Around half a century ago NASA launched many missions apart of the Apollo program. Artemis is trying to build on the experience of these missions. With Artemis, humans will return to the lunar surface, and this time to stay. NASA will use innovative technologies to explore the Moon’s South Pole and more of the lunar surface than ever before using the Gateway space station in lunar orbit along with advanced spacesuits and rovers. NASA is confident they will lead the way in collaboration with international and commercial partners to establish the first long-term presence on the Moon. Then, they will use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars.
Updates & Final Journey
Now that we know more about the new record set by Orion and some of its operations yesterday on the 26th, we can take a closer look at its distant retrograde orbit and how it was propelled so far from Earth. Just two days ago on November 25th, NASA tweeted mentioning, “@NASA_Johnson flight controllers successfully performed a burn to insert @NASA_Orion into a distant retrograde orbit. While in lunar orbit, flight controllers will monitor key systems and perform checkouts while in the environment of deep space.” Specifically, on flight day 10, Flight Controllers in the White Flight Control Room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston successfully performed a burn to insert Orion into a distant retrograde orbit by firing the orbital maneuvering system engine for 1 minute and 28 seconds at 4:52 p.m. CST, propelling the spacecraft at 363 feet per second. Shortly before conducting the burn, Orion was traveling more than 57,000 miles above the lunar surface, marking the farthest distance it will reach from the Moon during the mission.
The orbit is distant in that Orion will fly about 40,000 miles above the Moon. Due to the distance of the orbit, it will take Orion nearly a week to complete half an orbit around the Moon, where it will exit the orbit for the return journey home. About four days later, the spacecraft will harness the Moon’s gravitational force once again, combined with a precisely timed lunar flyby burn to slingshot Orion onto its return course to Earth. It’s important to point out that on Artemis I, engineers are testing several aspects of the Orion spacecraft needed for deep space missions with crew, including its highly capable propulsion system to maintain its course with precision and ensure its crew can get home, communication and navigation systems to maintain contact with the ground and orient the spacecraft, systems and features to handle radiation events, as well as a heat shield that can handle a high-speed reentry from the Moon. Both distance and duration demand that spacecraft must have systems that can reliably operate far from home, be capable of keeping astronauts alive in case of emergencies and still be light enough that a rocket can launch it.
Artemis II will test the systems required for astronauts to live and breathe in deep space. Long duration missions far from Earth drive engineers to design compact systems not only to maximize available space for crew comfort, but also to accommodate the volume needed to carry consumables like enough food and water for the entirety of a mission lasting days or weeks. However, before this next mission, Artemis 1 needs to be completed. For its return trip to Earth, Orion will do another close flyby that takes the spacecraft within about 60 miles of the Moon’s surface, the spacecraft will use another precisely timed engine firing of the European-provided service module in conjunction with the Moon’s gravity to accelerate back toward Earth. This maneuver will set the spacecraft on its trajectory back toward Earth to enter our planet’s atmosphere traveling at 25,000 mph (11 kilometers per second), producing temperatures of approximately 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius) – faster and hotter than Orion experienced during its 2014 flight test.
After about four to six weeks and a total distance traveled exceeding 1.3 million miles, the mission will end with a test of Orion’s capability to return safely to the Earth as the spacecraft attempts to make a precision landing within eyesight of the recovery ship off the coast of Baja, California. While there are no humans within the capsule on this mission, an important step prior to Artemis II will be the return journey or Orion. Following splashdown, Orion will remain powered for a period of time as divers from the U.S. Navy and operations teams from NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems approach in small boats from the waiting recovery ship. The divers will briefly inspect the spacecraft for hazards and hook up tending and tow lines, and then engineers will tow the capsule into the well-deck of the recovery ship to bring the spacecraft home.
With this first exploration mission, NASA is working to lead the next steps of human exploration into deep space where astronauts will build and begin testing the systems near the Moon needed for lunar surface missions and exploration to other destinations farther from Earth, including Mars. As partially mentioned prior, the second flight will take crew on a different trajectory and test Orion’s critical systems with humans aboard. The SLS rocket will evolve from an initial configuration capable of sending more than 26 metric tons to the Moon, to a final configuration that can send at least 45 metric tons. These future missions will land humans on the lunar south pole. This region of the Moon is important for lunar scientists. Water is a critical resource for long-term exploration, and that’s one of the main reasons NASA will send astronauts to the Moon’s South Pole.
Conclusion
For almost two weeks, Orion has been traveling hundreds of thousands of miles away from the Earth and to the Moon. Just yesterday the spacecraft beat the record for the farthest distance traveled from Earth of a human-rated spacecraft. A record previously held by Apollo 13 at around 250,000 miles away. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.