Jamie Bennet
Lockheed Martin‘s uncrewed Orion capsule has surpassed the farthest distance ever traveled by a human-rated spacecraft, CNN reported Monday.
NASA confirmed that the capsule, which launched Nov. 16 aboard the Space Launch System powered by Boeing‘s core stage, has so far flown 270,000 miles from Earth.
The distance is more than 40,000 miles past the moon and beats the record of the Apollo 13 mission that carried astronauts 248,655 miles from Earth in 1970, the report said.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson called Artemis I “an extraordinary success,” adding that its biggest test is the strength of the heat shield during reentry, which is set on Dec. 11 off the coast of California.
Artemis I is a trial run for NASA’s plan to revive manned flights to the lunar surface. If Orion passes safety tests, the space agency will proceed with a crewed Artemis II mission as early as 2024. The spacecraft will travel around but not land on the moon. A third flight is scheduled for 2025, which will mark the first time a woman and a person of color is expected to make lunar landing.
