Toni Dimaano Science 11.25.2022 22:Nov PM EST

NASA’s Artemis 1 Orion Spacecraft Successfully Moves Into The Moon’s Orbit

The Orion space capsule has reached its target destination through an execution of a short trajectory correction earlier today.

NASA began the attempt to park the spacecraft in a distant retrograde orbit of the moon on Friday, and has successfully entered the desired orbit around the Moon.

The Orion Is Set To Break The Record Set By Apollo 13

The space agency's coverage of the maneuver began at 4:30 p.m. ET on November 25, with the trajectory correction burn, scheduled to begin about 20 minutes later.

The burn lasted for less than 2 minutes to complete, which is not a very long process to send the Orion spacecraft to its intended distance.

According to Gizmodo, the orbit the Orion traveled to is called the distant retrograde orbit or (DRO) because it is 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) beyond the Moon.

This orbit is a huge one, and so gigantic that it may take the spacecraft around 6 days to complete half of the revolution around the moon before it returns to Earth.

NASA says that the retrograde aspect of the orbit the Orion capsule entered is where it will stay and revolve around in the opposite direction the Moon moves around the planet.

With the DRO it reached, the spacecraft is set to break the record distance that Apollo 23 recorded when it reaches 298,565 miles (480,494 kilometers) from Earth.

The Orion has completed its sixth and final outbound trajectory burn, and is currently moving at 2,610 miles (4,200 kilometers) per hour.

Gizmodo says that today marks day 10 of the 26-day mission, which saw the launch of the Space Launch System rocket on November 16.

The Artemis 1 mission is set to show how both the Orion and the SLS will survive an atmospheric reentry at a speed of 24,360 miles (24,360 kilometers) per hour.

During Orion's return to Earth, it is expected to experience high temperatures in the atmospheres exceeding 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

However, before that, the Orion will have to execute another lunar flyby to pull off an exit maneuver from the DRO.

Artemis 1 Brings Eerie Images Of The Moon As Part Of Its Complex Mission

The Artemis 1's Orion spacecraft is expected to perform a series of complex missions on the Moon before it comes home.

Since it reached its target orbit on Friday, the Orion has sent new pictures of the moon back to the space agency as part of its spaceflight abilities testing.

According to Mashable, NASA captured detailed black and white images of the moon's cratered-ground, which were released on November 23.

NASA says that these pictures were snapped using the Orion's optical navigation camera, which the engineers are testing for future moon exploration flights and missions.

The space agency believes that testing this camera will provide a body of data that will determine how well it works under different lighting conditions.

These pictures captured from around 80 miles above the surface of the moon can be seen and browsed from the official NASA website.