The Orion spacecraft flew 128 km from the lunar surface and is on its way to Earth, despite a power unit shutdown at a critical moment

The mission of Artemis I is successfully nearing completion, although it is not without its imperfections.

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On November 16, the Space Launch System rocket launched the Orion spacecraft with dummies on board into space. A few days later, the device approached the moon at 129 kilometers, and in two days, experts of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have lost contact with the capsule for 47 minutes.

At the end of November Orion has left from the Earth on more than 432 000 km, what has become the record distance between our planet and the piloted space vehicle. In early December, after descending from a far retrograde orbit around the Moon, the ship departed for Earth.

On December 4, NASA recorded a power system failure. This occurred hours before one of the key moments of the Artemis I mission, the launch of the engines in standalone mode. On December 5 at 6:43 p.m. (EET), Orion, without NASA communications, was able to start its engines for 3 minutes and 27 seconds.

As a result, the ship was able to accelerate and head away from the Moon toward Earth. The Orion failed to maintain contact with NASA for 31 minutes because it was on the far side of the Moon, about 128 kilometres away from the surface.

Orion will dock in the Pacific Ocean on December 11. The NASA team has already gone to the area and is now practicing to lift the spacecraft on board the ship. A mock-up of the capsule is used for this purpose.

Source: space