The Orion spacecraft on Monday made its closest approach to the moon yet, and captured an Earthrise on its way to a distant retrograde orbit as part of the Artemis 1 mission, NASA said.
The uncrewed Orion spacecraft flew about 81 miles above the lunar surface during the Outbound Powered Flyby maneuver, harnessing the moons gravity to propel it into a distant orbit. It will make another close approach on its return trip to Earth.
A video shared by the space agency shows Earth emerging from behind the shadowed surface of the moon. The Earthrise was captured by a camera on the tip of one of Orions solar arrays.
The Artemis 1 mission launched Wednesday, Nov. 16 from Launch Pad 39B at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Over the course of its mission, Orion will travel 44,000 miles beyond the moon, some 280,000 miles from Earth.
Artemis 2 could see four astronauts orbit the moon in 2024, before a landing mission in 2025 or 2026, according to NASA. The agency said missions to Mars will follow.
