Astronomy Picture of the Day - Earthset from Orion

By Free Republic | Created at 2024-11-20 19:58:02 | Updated at 2024-11-22 15:33:12 1 day ago

Astronomy Picture of the Day - Earthset from Orion
NASA ^ | Nov, 20 2024 | Image Credit: NASA, Artemis 1

Posted on 11/20/2024 11:57:08 AM PST by MtnClimber

Explanation: Eight billion people are about to disappear in this snapshot from space taken on 2022 November 21. On the sixth day of the Artemis I mission, their home world is setting behind the Moon's bright edge as viewed by an external camera on the outbound Orion spacecraft. Orion was headed for a powered flyby that took it to within 130 kilometers of the lunar surface. Velocity gained in the flyby maneuver was used to reach a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. That orbit is considered distant because it's another 92,000 kilometers beyond the Moon, and retrograde because the spacecraft orbited in the opposite direction of the Moon's orbit around planet Earth. Orion entered its distant retrograde orbit on November 25. Swinging around the Moon, Orion reached a maximum distance (just over 400,000 kilometers) from Earth on November 28, exceeding a record set by Apollo 13 for most distant spacecraft designed for human space exploration. The Artemis II mission, carrying 4 astronauts around the moon and back again, is scheduled to launch no earlier than September 2025.

TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

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1 posted on 11/20/2024 11:57:08 AM PST by MtnClimber

To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 11/20/2024 11:57:29 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)

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