Published: Less than 10 min ago
The Orion capsule is out on a record-breaking journey into space.
Never before has a craft created to have astronauts on board been so far from Earth.
Now they wait for the critical moment that determines whether the mission is a success.
So far, the new lunar program has gone according to plan for the American space agency Nasa.
Now they have broken a record from 1970.
At 1:42 p.m. Saturday afternoon, Orion was farther from Earth than any spacecraft “designed to carry people and return safely” had done before.
Will land in the Pacific Ocean
The previous record of about 40,000 miles from Earth was set by Apollo 13.
On Monday evening, Orion will be at its furthest point in space. Then it is about 43,200 miles from us and then begins to return.
During the trip, Orion, through cameras placed on the outside of the craft, sends unique images of the Earth and the surface of the Moon published by Nasa.
On one of the video clips the earth is seen suddenly appearing in the darkness of space behind the shadow of the moon.
After the successful start, Nasa is positive that the program will succeed in the mission: A human return to the moon, for the first time since the Apollo program ended 50 years ago.
But only on December 11 can Nasa breathe a sigh of relief. The idea is that Orion will then land in the Pacific Ocean outside San Diego.
The commander is a puppet
By then, the spacecraft has returned to Earth’s atmosphere at approximately 40,000 kilometers per hour.
If you succeed in getting the craft down in one piece, an examination by commander Moonikin Campos takes place before you can declare success.
The doll, which sits in the captain’s chair, is dressed in a spacesuit and sensors that will show how the journey will be for real astronauts during future space missions.
The chair has sensors that measure acceleration and vibrations. The suit measures radiation levels.
Also on the trip are the upper bodies of two dolls named Helga and Zohar. The torsos are made of material that “mimics the bone structure, soft parts and organs of an adult woman”, writes the Washington Post.
Soon to live on the moon
Women are believed to be more sensitive to radioactive radiation than men.
As early as 2024, Nasa plans for a manned craft to make the same trip around the moon.
In a third space flight in the program, the idea is to also land on the moon. And this time a significantly longer stay awaits than during the Apollo program.
The plan is that during this decade, astronauts will live on the moon for a longer period of time in order to have time to solve riddles that do not yet have answers.
For example, find out if there is water on the moon’s south pole.
– We will send people to the surface of the moon and they will live there and conduct research, says Howard Hu, head of NASA, to the BBC.
The research must provide knowledge needed to be able to travel further into space.
The last time astronauts set foot on the lunar surface was in December 1972.