THIS PHOTOGRAPH shows NASA's Orion spacecraft more than a quarter of a million miles away from Earth on November 28, 2022, day 13 of the Artemis I mission. NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) and uncrewed Orion capsule launched at 01:47 EST on November 16,2022 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in the first integrated flight test of the rocket, service module and ground systems. NASA engineers then used the capsule's Orbital Manoeuvring System, which controls the craft's main engine and thrusters, to swing Orion towards the Moon. The capsule flew just 80 miles above the lunar surface in a powered flyby manoeuvre. This directed it into a six-day distant retrograde orbit (DRO) around the moon, during which various systems tests and checks were carried out. During the DRO, Orion set a new distance record for a spacecraft designed to carry humans into space and return them to Earth - reaching a distance of 268,563 miles away from our planet. This exceeded the 248,655 miles reached in 1970 by the three crew of Apollo 13 when they looped around the far side of the moon on a 'free return' trajectory after their aborted landing. On leaving the DRO, Orion was due to conduct a return powered flyby of the moon. Engineers would then undertake return trajectory correction engine burns "as necessary", NASA said, to direct the capsule towards Earth.
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