ANNOUNCEMENTS•
The Orion lunar capsule has been flying in space for ten days now. The unmanned flight, which is part of the Artemis mission, has already produced some beautiful images. In the first week, Orion made its first orbit around the moon.
And it looked like this, swipe right to zoom in more and more:
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NASA
Photo of the moon, taken by Orion, unmanned flight in space -
NASA
Photo of the moon, taken by Orion, unmanned flight in space -
NASA
Photo of the moon, taken by Orion, unmanned flight in space -
NASA
Photo of the moon, taken by Orion, unmanned flight in space
The Orion is used by NASA for the Artemis program, which is supposed to return people to the moon after fifty years. This unmanned flight is intended to gain experience for manned voyages over a two-year period.
The cameras also accurately imaged the lunar surface:
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NASA
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NASA
The photos were also taken from a greater distance. This is a more familiar image:
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NASA
Photo of the moon taken by Orion -
NASA
On the other side, the land is clearly visible
It is the first time since 1972 that a lunar rocket has been launched from Florida. For the launch of the Artemis, an extra large platform had to be built, because the rocket was as big as the tower of the Utrecht Cathedral. Even the Orion capsule is many times smaller.
This is what the launch of the Artemis 1 lunar rocket looked like:
This is what the launch of the Artemis 1 lunar rocket looked like
Hopefully, the spacecraft will return to Earth around December 11th.
