NASA's Artemis 1 Orion Captures Scenic Shots With the Moon

The Orion spacecraft has surpassed the expectations of the Artemis I mission by surviving in orbit for over three weeks.

The unmanned capsule was dispatched on its first flight beyond Earth to test its systems and ensure a smooth experience for the crewed mission.

The most recent photograph captured by the expedition is breathtaking.

Cinematic Image

The camera at the tip of Orion's solar wings captured the photo.

The spaceship's side is in dramatic contrast to the cratered and gloomy lunar surface. When seen from a great distance, Earth appears as a thin crescent because only a small portion of the globe is in the Sun's light.

Many have referred to it as a scene from a science fiction film, but the resemblance to the poster for Ron Howard's Apollo 13 is particularly unsettling.

Returning to Home Planet

As reported by IFLScience, NASA's Orion will fall into the ocean off the coast of San Diego next Sunday, Dec. 11. It will mark the end of its mission and a critical last test for the spacecraft.

Administrator Bill Nelson expressed his excitement via NASA's blog by saying, "Orion is heading home!"

According to him, the crew has just completed another historic feat by piloting Orion within 80km of the Moon's surface.

Orion's last flyby of the Moon had allowed the spacecraft to use the Moon's gravity to "slingshot" it back toward Earth for a splashdown.

Nelson added, "When Orion re-enters Earth's atmosphere in just a few days, it will come back hotter and faster than ever before - the ultimate test before we put astronauts on board. Next up, re-entry!"

Above Apollo Landing Sites

According to Space.com, this Monday commemorated the 8th anniversary of another Orion capsule's short test mission in Earth orbit in 2014. NASA celebrated it by bringing an Orion spacecraft very near to the Moon.

This time, the human-rated rocket was executing an engine run near the Moon to bring the Artemis 1 mission back home as it approached the last week of a nearly month-long voyage.

NASA spokeswoman Sandra Jones and deputy Apollo curator Juliane Gross discussed the six Apollo lunar landing sites seen behind the uncrewed Orion. They also addressed how NASA's new moon mission would build on Apollo's geological legacy during a live NASA Television broadcast immediately before the successful engine fire.

NASA aims to retrieve a larger variety of rocks than basalts. These comprised the majority of what Apollo astronauts recovered at their equatorial landing sites, Gross stated, beginning with the crewed Artemis 3 landing mission in 2025 or so.

Astronauts from the Artemis mission will land in the south-polar zone of the Moon, but they do not anticipate a lot of basalts there, said Gross. She added, "That's more like a highland region."

Orion was around 2,000mi (3,200km) above the locations where a dozen Apollo astronauts made brief excursions on the lunar surface between 1969 and 1972 when the broadcast took place.

The Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 flights were successful landings; the Apollo 13 mission was cut short due to an emergency aboard the spacecraft.