At the time of publication, the Artemis II mission is halfway to the Moon. The Orion spacecraft heads towards Earth’s natural satellite, where astronauts must perform a lunar flyby and collect scientific observations of the surface.
The image released by NASA shows the capsule in deep space, with the Moon in the background. The recording was made by a camera installed on the tip of one of the ship’s solar panels.
Look here NASA’s real-time tracking.
In the photo, the Moon appears as a gray body in the distance, contrasting with the darkness of space. On the left, part of Orion can be seen, while one of its solar panels extends towards the center of the image.
With an estimated duration of ten days, the spacecraft will follow a figure-of-eight trajectory, even going around the far side of the Moon. The Artemis II mission is expected to break the record for the greatest distance from Earth ever reached by humans.
Currently, this mark belongs to the Apollo 13 mission, from 1970. At the time, the spacecraft carrying the astronauts had problems and was unable to land on the lunar soil, but ended up setting the distance record that remains to this day.
On Thursday (2), the ship made the last major boost to the engine, which placed Orion on the correct route.
