Skip to main content

Here’s what NASA’s Orion spacecraft is doing over Thanksgiving weekend

Since taking off aboard the Space Launch System rocket last Wednesday, NASA’s Orion spacecraft has had a remarkably smooth journey. But it’s far from over. While millions of Americans prepare for a long weekend with family and friends, Orion will continue its 25-day mission, including conducting a crucial burn on Friday to enter a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon.

Orion is eight days into its 25-day journey around the Moon. The capsule is a cornerstone of NASA’s Artemis program, which has the aim of returning humans to the Moon by the end of the decade and, in the long-term, making our presence there permanent. Orion’s mission has been dubbed Artemis I, a reflection of both the start of the Artemis program and the capsule finally becoming operational.

The journey hasn’t been without its hiccups, though these have been relatively minor. Perhaps the most substantial occurred very early this morning, when NASA unexpectedly lost the data connection to the spacecraft for 47 minutes. Engineers are still working to figure out why this happened, but data was restored with no impact to Orion.

So what exactly does the rest of this week have in store for Orion? Well, quite a lot.

Right now, the spacecraft is on its way toward distant retrograde orbit (DRO). The orbit is so named because of its altitude from the Moon’s surface, and because the orbit travels in a direction opposite the Moon’s orbit around the Earth. DRO is considered highly stable, and because of that, little fuel is required for a spacecraft to maintain its position in orbit.

On Friday, Orion will conduct the DRO insertion burn using the European Service Module, the power and propulsion components of the spacecraft built by the European Space Agency. The following day, Orion is set to make a new record for the farthest distance traveled by a human-rated spacecraft, journeying 248,655 miles from Earth. The spacecraft will reach its maximum distance from Earth on Monday, at 268,552 miles.

Orion will stay in DRO for about a week, during which time spacecraft systems will continue to be tested.

Mike Sarafin, Artemis Mission Manager, described the mission back in April as a “true stress test” of the spacecraft in the deep space environment.

“Without crew aboard the first mission, DRO allows Orion to spend more time in deep space for a rigorous mission to ensure spacecraft systems, like guidance, navigation, communication, power, thermal control and others are ready to keep astronauts safe on future crewed missions,” he said.

Beyond this point, Orion will have to conduct two more crucial burns, the first to depart from DRO and the second to slingshot back around the Moon and return the spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth. The grand finale will come when Orion returns to Earth. It’s anticipated that the capsule will experience temperatures of up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit upon atmospheric reentry, and NASA needs to see that the spacecraft is up for it before using it to fly astronauts later this decade.

Here’s what NASA’s Orion spacecraft is doing over Thanksgiving weekend by Aria Alamalhodaei originally published on TechCrunch



source https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/23/heres-what-nasas-orion-spacecraft-is-doing-over-thanksgiving-weekend/

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Silent Revolution of On-Device AI: Why the Cloud Is No Longer King

Introduction For years, artificial intelligence has meant one thing: the cloud. Whether you’re asking ChatGPT a question, editing a photo with AI tools, or getting recommendations on Netflix — those decisions happen on distant servers, not your device. But that’s changing. Thanks to major advances in silicon, model compression, and memory architecture, AI is quietly migrating from giant data centres to the palm of your hand. Your phone, your laptop, your smartwatch — all are becoming AI engines in their own right. It’s a shift that redefines not just how AI works, but who controls it, how private it is, and what it can do for you. This article explores the rise of on-device AI — how it works, why it matters, and why the cloud’s days as the centre of the AI universe might be numbered. What Is On-Device AI? On-device AI refers to machine learning models that run locally on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, or edge device — without needing constant access to the cloud. In practi...

Apple’s AI Push: Everything We Know About Apple Intelligence So Far

Apple’s WWDC 2025 confirmed what many suspected: Apple is finally making a serious leap into artificial intelligence. Dubbed “Apple Intelligence,” the suite of AI-powered tools, enhancements, and integrations marks the company’s biggest software evolution in a decade. But unlike competitors racing to plug AI into everything, Apple is taking a slower, more deliberate approach — one rooted in privacy, on-device processing, and ecosystem synergy. If you’re wondering what Apple Intelligence actually is, how it works, and what it means for your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you’re in the right place. This article breaks it all down.   What Is Apple Intelligence? Let’s get the terminology clear first. Apple Intelligence isn’t a product — it’s a platform. It’s not just a chatbot. It’s a system-wide integration of generative AI, machine learning, and personal context awareness, embedded across Apple’s OS platforms. Think of it as a foundational AI layer stitched into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and m...

Max Q: Psyche(d)

In this issue: SpaceX launches NASA asteroid mission, news from Relativity Space and more. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/h6Kjrde via IFTTT