The Orion spacecraft, sent through the Artemis I mission, does not stop leaving us incredible images, and the last one published by NASA is, so far, the most surprising that the 16 cameras attached to the capsule have been able to capture. The administration has shared a photograph showing the Earth and Moon aligned after the aforementioned ship, sent into space through the SLS, will reach the maximum distance from our planet: about 434,522 kilometers.
It is, in fact, the first time that a spacecraft designed to be manned by humans —currently it only carries mannequins on board— manages to reach this distance from Earth, thus surpassing that achieved by NASA with the Apollo 13 mission in 1970 and, therefore, granting the historical image that allows us to see our planet and the terrestrial satellite from a very different perspective than what we are used to.
The photograph, specifically, shows the front area of the Orion spacecraft. In the distance, the Moon, brown in color and considerably larger than Earth due to the perspective of the capsule and the camera that captured the image, well, let’s remember, the Moon has a diameter of just 3,500 km. The diameter of the Earth, on the other hand, is much greater; of 13,000 km.
The Orion spacecraft has not stopped taking “selfies” since its arrival in space
This, of course, is not the only image that Orion has captured during its journey through space. NASA, in fact, has not stopped sharing “selfies” of the aforementioned capsule in which he appears posing alone with the Moon or with our Planet. These are images that, in addition to fascinating us, serve as a preview of what the astronauts will see who will be aboard the ship in a few years to fulfill the objective of Artemis I: return to the Moon.
NASA plans to set foot on the Moon again in 2024. As long as, of course, the different tests and previous missions —such as the launch of the Orion spacecraft through the SLS to verify the strength of the gigantic rocket— are carried out successfully.