NASA’s Orion capsule and its test dummies swooped one last time around the moon Monday, flying over a couple Apollo landing sites before heading home.
NASA's Orion spacecraft flew past the moon on Monday, December 5, 2022. The crew capsule and its test dummies will aim for a Pacific Ocean splashdown on Sunday, December 11, 2022, off the coast of San Diego after a three-week test flight, setting the stage for astronauts on the next flight in a couple years.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Orion will aim for a Pacific splashdown Sunday off San Diego, setting the stage for astronauts on the next flight in a couple years. The capsule passed within 80 miles of the far side of the moon, using the lunar gravity as a slingshot for the 237,000-mile ride back to Earth.
Once emerging from behind the moon and regaining communication with flight controllers in Houston, Orion beamed back photos of a close-up moon and a crescent Earth — Earthrise — in the distance.The capsule also passed over the landing sites of Apollo 12 and 14. But at 1,200 miles up, it was too high to make out the descent stages of the lunar landers or anything else left behind by astronauts more than a half-century ago.
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