A mesmerizing new video exhibits Earth setting behind our moon as a spacecraft flies within the neighborhood.
Artemis 1, the primary flight of NASA’s Artemis program, launched early Wednesday morning (Nov. 16). All milestones after launch atop the large Space Launch System rocket have been checked off to this point, together with a crucial engine burn of the uncrewed Orion spacecraft on the moon on Monday (Nov. 21).
NASA carried the engine burn dwell and in addition livestreamed footage of Orion flying close to the moon when a sign from the capsule was obtainable.
“You’re seeing the Earth; you might be seeing residence. You’re seeing your self in that picture proper there as Orion is 232,000 miles [373,000 kilometers] away from planet Earth,” NASA spokesperson Sandra Jones mentioned throughout dwell protection of the Orion lunar flyby Monday (Nov. 21) on NASA Tv.
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Orion’s high-definition view of Earth on Monday was removed from the primary time we have glimpsed our planet from to this point afield.
Throughout the broadcast, Jones evoked the famed Christmas Eve broadcast from Apollo 8 on Dec. 24, 1968, when three astronauts beamed residence dwell black-and-white footage of the moon, in the course of the first orbital lunar journey by people. Apollo 8 crewmember Invoice Anders additionally captured a nonetheless colour picture of “Earthrise” above the lunar floor that is still iconic to this day.
Jones additionally referenced the “pale blue dot” picture taken by NASA’s Voyager 1 probe in 1990 from above the aircraft of the solar system and past the orbit of Neptune. The moniker got here from scientist and science popularizer Carl Sagan.
Lately, Earth-observing satellites like Suomi NPP and GOES-16 have supplied “blue marble” pictures from excessive above our planet. Periodic flybys by spacecraft comparable to BepiColombo in 2020 even have proven our Earth’s full disc.
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After Orion’s Monday flyby, NASA flight director Zeb Scoville mentioned the view of Earth setting behind the moon “is a game-changer” as NASA prepares to ship people again to lunar realms with the Artemis 2 mission, at present slated to fly no sooner than 2024.
“Going to work at NASA, after I bought right here we had been flying shuttle,” Scoville recalled on NASA Tv.
“We had been constructing a space station and flying it. That’s an unbelievable automobile, however on the horizon was at all times how humanity was going to again to the moon … [We’re] making ready to convey people again there inside a number of years. This can be a game-changer.”
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a e book about space drugs. Observe her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
