On Flight Day 8, NASAs Orion spacecraft remains two days away from reaching its remote retrograde orbit. The Moon remains in deem Orion snaps a selfie using a video camera installed on one of its solar array at 10:57 p.m. EST.
Credit: NASA NASAs Orion spacecraft is now about one day away from getting in into a far-off retrograde orbit around the Moon. The orbit is “remote” in the sense that its at a high altitude around 50,000 miles (80,000 km) from the surface of the Moon. Due to the range, the orbit is so big that it will take the spacecraft 6 days to complete half of a revolution around the Moon prior to exiting the orbit for the return journey back to Earth.
Throughout the last day in the transit to remote retrograde orbit, flight controllers performed a third in a series of prepared star tracker advancement flight tests relative to the Sun, with a fourth planned for tomorrow. Star trackers are a navigation tool that determine the positions of stars to help the spacecraft identify its orientation. In the first three flight days, engineers assessed preliminary information to understand star tracker readings correlated to thruster firings.
The spacecraft completed its sixth outgoing trajectory correction burn at 3:52 p.m. CST, shooting the European Service Modules auxiliary engines for 17 seconds to propel the spacecraft at 8.9 feet per second. This is the last trajectory correction before getting in remote retrograde orbit. When in lunar orbit, Orion will perform 3 orbital maintenance burns to keep the spacecraft on course.
On the eighth day of the Artemis I objective, a video camera installed on among Orions solar ranges recorded the spacecraft and the Moon as it continued towards far-off retrograde orbit. Credit: NASA
Overnight, engineers will start a 24-hour test of the reaction control system engines to assess engine performance for non-standard and standard thruster setups. This test will offer information to inform procedures and guarantee that the reaction control thrusters can manage Orions orientation in an alternate configuration if there is a problem with the primary configuration.
Just after 1:42 p.m. CST on November 24, Orion was taking a trip 222,993 miles (358,872 km) from Earth and 55,819 miles (89,832 km) from the Moon, cruising at 2,610 miles per hour (4,200 km per hour).
NASA Television protection of the distant retrograde orbit insertion burn is arranged for 4:30 p.m. EST on Friday, November 25. The burn is arranged to occur at 4:52 p.m.
NASAs Orion spacecraft is now about one day away from entering into a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. Due to the range, the orbit is so big that it will take the spacecraft 6 days to complete half of a revolution around the Moon before exiting the orbit for the return journey back to Earth.
When in lunar orbit, Orion will carry out 3 orbital maintenance burns to keep the spacecraft on course.