NASA’s Orion Is Coming Home After Its Lunar Space Orbit

NASA's very own Orion capsule was devised to deploy a team of astronauts to the moon. According to The Register, the capsule is coming back to earth after a far-retrograde orbiting through the satellite's surface.

Orion's Space Journey

Last December 1, NASA confirmed that the spacecraft boosted its primary engine at 2153 UTC or 1553 CST for around a minute and forty-five seconds. This altered the velocity of the craft by around 454 feet each second.

This orbital burn was the first among the two different manoeuvres it needed to conduct.

So far, the capsule has spent nearly 20 days in space. It is assumed to descend into the Pacific Ocean around December 11. The US Navy will then recover the craft at the landing site.

The second orbital burn of Orion is set for December 5. At this point, the capsule will be around 79.2 miles distant from the surface of the moon.

Orion bears some leftover equipment, mainly the main engine, from the Space Shuttle times of NASA. It is a repurposed and upgraded system grounded on the exact engine that had allowed space shuttles to fly optimally. These include shuttles STS-112 back in October 2002 and, even earlier, STS-41G back in October 1984.

Challenges in Getting Orion Deployed

In their pursuit of deploying Orion and SLS, NASA underwent several challenges. In fact, Orion was meant to go to the moon last August, as noted by the Register. However, the launch got further shelved because of the hurricanes and fuel issues that engineers had to combat.

Finally, the spacecraft reached space last November 16 when it was onboard the Space Launch System or SLS. This was reportedly the SLS' first flight to space.

NASA's Artemis I Mission

Orion's deployment was done as part of NASA's Artemis I Mission. Artemis I, previously called Exploration Mission-1, is the first step in a series of complicated missions that aim to dig deeper into the moon and Mars.

Both the SLS and Orion are central to the accomplishment of this mission.

However, aside from the iconic Orion, the SLS also boarded ten different CubeSats or satellites that had to work on conducting their own scientific and technical research. NASA notes that with this mission as the first of many, Artemis I may give grounds for in-depth space ventures and show the will and capacity for humans to exist on the moon and even beyond it.

NASA notes that this mission is crucial to the overall economy of space. This is because it may lead to the founding of new technologies and fields, promoting the growth of jobs and increasing the demand for a competent workforce. Individuals across fifty states are working hard to build Deep Space Exploration Systems so that missions conducted deep in space can be supported.

Check out more news and information on Space in Science Times.