Tag Archives: Apollo

Mayor Eric Adams, NYPD addresses backlash over viral video of officers taken after Drake concert at the Apollo Theater in Harlem

HARLEM, Manhattan (WABC) — Twitter was thrown into a frenzy over the weekend after footage captured the NYPD taking video of people leaving a Drake concert at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, but the department insists it’s not what it looks like.

“It was a large event. Drake back at the Apollo! We want that. We want our police and community involved,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said.

It was an epic weekend at the Apollo. Drake performed for the first time ever at the historic theater.

After the Sunday night concert, fans walked to about a dozen NYPD officers, in plain sight, shooting video of those leaving the performance.

The five second clip went viral, with 20 million views and counting, and angered users on social media, including Twitter, about NYPD surveillance tactics.

“Well, first we have to be honest with ourselves. Twitter is not real and those little people that goes back and forth all the time talking to themselves,” Adams said.

ALSO READ | Woman pleads guilty to stealing cousin’s $1 million New York State Lottery jackpot

In a statement to Eyewitness News, the NYPD said the officer seen in the blue jacket holding the camera is from the 28th Precinct social media team and that the officer was taking video for an upcoming Twitter post that will highlight local community events. The video will not be utilized for any other reason.

They said the final Drake concert video will look similar to a video created from a December toy drive.

The 28th Precinct has been posting highlights from local events, trying to promote a positive relationship between the community and the NYPD.

“When you have those that are sitting at home in the corner of the room, trying to find a reason to divide NYPD from everyday New Yorkers, then they are going to say that,” Adams said. “Thumbs up to that great captain up in the 28 Precinct. I know that precinct. I know that captain. He’s very community-minded and community-centered and I commend him for doing so.”

But the clip reignited concerns raised last week when Madison Square Garden admitted to using facial recognition to remove litigants with actions against the arena. This prompted state legislators to introduce a new bill Monday, that would ban the use of facial recognition at sporting events.

Still, with the NYPD providing an explanation as to why cameras were filming people leaving the Apollo, a lot of New Yorkers still aren’t buying it. Meaning, the NYPD has a lot more work to do in improving community relations.

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Moon scientists hail Artemis opportunities while still learning from Apollo

It’s been half a century since humans last retrieved samples of the moon’s surface, and we’re finally going back — with better technology, too. 

With the successful Artemis 1 test flight in December and 50 years after the final Apollo lunar mission in 1972, astronomers and space enthusiasts alike are buzzing with excitement about humanity’s return to the moon. Planetary scientists, however, are particularly eager for the science will come from future crewed Artemis missions and complementary robotic explorers. At the 2022 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in December, lunar scientists shared some of the mysteries they’re pursuing using data from the Apollo program and beyond, and how Artemis will offer a more comprehensive understanding of our moon.

Although the Apollo missions were decades ago, the lunar samples returned from those voyages are still keeping scientists busy. From small glass beads to crystals formed in magma, the rocks and minerals in the Apollo samples are a prime target for geologists interested in the moon’s volcanic history. The moon doesn’t have active volcanoes now, but it was quite busy in its earlier years — the moon’s famous “seas” known as mare are actually plains of hardened lava.

Related: The 10 greatest images from NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission

Aleksandra Gawronska, planetary scientist at Miami University in Ohio, used crystals from lunar rocks as a record of what happened in the long-ago magma. This is a technique used often by Earth geologists, which planetary scientists are now translating to the moon. And that’s not where the similarities end — Gawronska told her colleagues that, based on her results, “lunar magmatic systems might mimic their terrestrial counterparts.”

Apollo missions to the lunar highlands also used seismic experiments, which famously detected “moonquakes” that allowed scientists to probe the internal structure of the moon and measure the depth of the lunar soil, known as regolith, which forms as the bedrock breaks down. The Apollo observations pointed to 16-foot-deep (5 meters) soil in the dark volcanic regions known as mare, and regolith 33 feet (10 m) thick in the older, more cratered highlands. “Recent lava flows [like mare] have been exposed to fewer impacts,” said Schelin Ireland, also a planetary scientist at Miami University, during another presentation. “Regolith is much thinner in these young areas.”

The Apollo missions specifically targeted young, fresh craters in the highlands, though, which are pretty rare, so Ireland worries that data isn’t representative of what most of the moon is actually like. Recent work she shared at the conference confirms it, indicating that much of the moon’s regolith is even deeper than what the Apollo experiments observed around the few young craters astronauts have visited to date. Future missions will need to keep this in mind, and explore more diverse areas.

Astronaut John Young and the Lunar Roving Vehicle seen in 1972, during the Apollo 16 mission that marked the last time NASA landed humans on the moon. (Image credit: NASA)

Speaking of future missions, one is already planned to look into a different facet of lunar geology: the moon’s magnetism. Sarah Vines, planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Maryland, is working on NASA’s Lunar Vertex mission, a probe and rover combo slated to launch in 2024. This project will explore magnetic rocks on the moon’s surface, which are puzzling since currently the moon has no magnetic field to form them. “That’s one of the big mysteries here,” Vines said in a presentation. “How have these magnetic anomalies arisen, and how have they evolved over time?”

Planetary scientists are also using data from more recent lunar missions, such as the LCROSS impactor that smacked the Cabeus Crater at the lunar south pole in 2009, to find useful materials like water, hydrogen and oxygen on the moon. Most of these volatile materials exist in permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) on crater floors near the moon’s poles that never see sunlight. How those materials got there (and exactly how much is there) is still a mystery, and one that astronomers are actively working on with that treasured LCROSS data. 

Artemis 1 provided another tool to investigate PSRs via one of the small cubesats it ferried toward the moon. The Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper (LunaH-Map) is only “about the size of a large cereal box” according to Craig Hardgrove, planetary scientist at Arizona State University and principal investigator of the LunaH-Map mission. Its goal was to map hydrogen deposits at the lunar south pole, peering 3 feet (1 m) into the surface through a series of close fly-bys. Although the instrument onboard LunaH-Map is alive and well, the propulsion system is having trouble, Hardgrave told his colleagues. If the team doesn’t get it restarted by mid-January, LunaH-Map may not be able to map those deposits after all.

A view of the south pole of the moon that marks permanently shadowed regions (PSRs), where the sun never shines. (Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio)

There are many missions in the planning stages, though, so LunaH-Map is by no means our last opportunity to delve into PSRs. Another question about these strange deposits is why they aren’t even larger. Some astronomers think that micrometeoroid impacts could blast off some of the ice, leaking away the contents into space. Micrometeoroids — tiny pieces of rock and other debris moving at high speeds — are also a critical danger to the safety of any crews or equipment in space, and would limit how long a spacecraft can operate undamaged on the moon.

Scientists are also designing a new instrument, the Lunar Meteoroid Monitor, or LMM, which they hope could count these impacts as part of the Artemis program. The Apollo missions gathered similar measurements, but this new project would be a significant tech upgrade. LMM would not only determine the risk of micrometeoroid impacts, but also “enable us to identify and map resources in lunar PSRs” according to Alex Doner, a planetary scientist at University of Colorado Boulder working on the project.

All of these geologic explorations are paving the way for a much better understanding of our nearest celestial neighbor. This improved knowledge of lunar structure, geology and water deposits is key for understanding both the history of our solar system and how humans might one day live on the moon.

Follow the author at @briles_34 on Twitter. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.



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Walter Cunningham: Last surviving Apollo 7 astronaut has died

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CNN
 — 

Walter Cunningham, a retired NASA astronaut and pilot of the first crewed flight in the space agency’s famed Apollo program, died early Tuesday morning at the age of 90, NASA said.

Cunningham was one of the earliest members of NASA’s human spaceflight program as a member of its third astronaut class, joining the space agency in 1963. He was selected to pilot Apollo 7, the first crewed mission of the NASA program that went on to land humans on the moon for the first time.

“We would like to express our immense pride in the life that he lived, and our deep gratitude for the man that he was — a patriot, an explorer, pilot, astronaut, husband, brother, and father,” the Cunningham family noted in a statement shared by NASA. “The world has lost another true hero, and we will miss him dearly.”

The Apollo 7 mission launched in 1968 and lasted roughly 11 days, sending the crew on a journey into orbit that amounted to a test flight that could demonstrate the Apollo capsule’s ability to rendezvous with another spacecraft in orbit and pave the way for future exploration deeper into space. It was also notable for featuring in the first live TV broadcast of Americans from space, according to NASA.

Cunningham was the last surviving member of the Apollo 7 crew, which also included astronauts Wally Schirra and Donn Eisele.

Born in Creston, Iowa, and a recipient of an honors bachelor’s degree in physics and a masters with distinction in physics from the University of California at Los Angeles, Cunningham was 36 years old when the Apollo 7 mission launched. During an interview with NASA’s Oral History Office in 1999, he reflected on his career path and motivations.

“I’m one of those people that never really looked back. I only recall that when someone asked me after I became an astronaut,” Cunningham said. “All I remember is just kind of keeping my nose to the grindstone and wanting to do the best I could as — I didn’t realize at the time, but that was because I always wanted to be better prepared for the next step. I’ve always been looking to the future. I don’t live in the past.”

Though he ventured into outer space only once, Cunningham went on to become a leader in NASA’s Skylab program, the United States’ first space station that orbited Earth from 1973 to 1979.

Before joining NASA, Cunningham enlisted in the US Navy and began training as a pilot in 1952, according to his official NASA biography, and he served as a fighter pilot with the US Marine Corps on 54 missions in Korea.

“The only thing I can ever recall doing specifically to become an astronaut, because I looked at it that I had become one of, if not the best, fighter pilot in the world,” Cunningham said in the interview with NASA’s Oral History Office.

Cunningham also completed a doctorate in physics at UCLA without completing a thesis, and later, in 1974, he completed an advanced management program at the Harvard Graduate School of Business, according to NASA.

He worked as a physicist for the Rand Corporation, a nonprofit military think tank, prior to joining the astronaut corps.

After leaving the space agency, Cunningham wore many hats, taking on various roles in the private sector. According to his NASA biography, he served in a number of executive roles at development companies, worked as a consultant for startups, became an entrepreneur and investor, and, eventually, became a radio talk show host.

In later years, Cunningham also became an outspoken critic of prevailing notions about humanity’s impact climate change.

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Apollo astronaut Walter Cunningham dead at 90

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.



CNN
 — 

Walter Cunningham, a retired NASA astronaut and pilot of the first crewed flight in the space agency’s famed Apollo program, died early Tuesday morning at the age of 90, NASA said.

Cunningham was one of the earliest members of NASA’s human spaceflight program as a member of its third astronaut class, joining the space agency in 1963. He was selected to pilot Apollo 7, the first crewed mission of the NASA program that went on to land humans on the moon for the first time.

“We would like to express our immense pride in the life that he lived, and our deep gratitude for the man that he was — a patriot, an explorer, pilot, astronaut, husband, brother, and father,” the Cunningham family noted in a statement shared by NASA. “The world has lost another true hero, and we will miss him dearly.”

The Apollo 7 mission launched in 1968 and lasted roughly 11 days, sending the crew on a journey into orbit that amounted to a test flight that could demonstrate the Apollo capsule’s ability to rendezvous with another spacecraft in orbit and pave the way for future exploration deeper into space. It was also notable for featuring in the first live TV broadcast of Americans from space, according to NASA.

Cunningham was the last surviving member of the Apollo 7 crew, which also included astronauts Wally Schirra and Donn Eisele.

Born in Creston, Iowa, and a recipient of an honors bachelor’s degree in physics and a masters with distinction in physics from the University of California at Los Angeles, Cunningham was 36 years old when the Apollo 7 mission launched. During an interview with NASA’s Oral History Office in 1999, he reflected on his career path and motivations.

“I’m one of those people that never really looked back. I only recall that when someone asked me after I became an astronaut,” Cunningham said. “All I remember is just kind of keeping my nose to the grindstone and wanting to do the best I could as — I didn’t realize at the time, but that was because I always wanted to be better prepared for the next step. I’ve always been looking to the future. I don’t live in the past.”

Though he ventured into outer space only once, Cunningham went on to become a leader in NASA’s Skylab program, the United States’ first space station that orbited Earth from 1973 to 1979.

Before joining NASA, Cunningham enlisted in the US Navy and began training as a pilot in 1952, according to his official NASA biography, and he served as a fighter pilot with the US Marine Corps on 54 missions in Korea.

“The only thing I can ever recall doing specifically to become an astronaut, because I looked at it that I had become one of, if not the best, fighter pilot in the world,” Cunningham said in the interview with NASA’s Oral History Office.

Cunningham also completed a doctorate in physics at UCLA without completing a thesis, and later, in 1974, he completed an advanced management program at the Harvard Graduate School of Business, according to NASA.

He worked as a physicist for the Rand Corporation, a nonprofit military think tank, prior to joining the astronaut corps.

After leaving the space agency, Cunningham wore many hats, taking on various roles in the private sector. According to his NASA biography, he served in a number of executive roles at development companies, worked as a consultant for startups, became an entrepreneur and investor, and, eventually, became a radio talk show host.

In later years, Cunningham also became an outspoken critic of prevailing notions about humanity’s impact climate change.

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Apollo 8 astronauts shared Christmas Eve message while orbiting the moon

It was the night before Christmas in 1968 when the Apollo 8 astronauts beamed back a message for “the good Earth” while circling the moon.

NASA Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders became the first to orbit the moon on Dec. 24, 1968.

With the pressure mounting under President John F. Kennedy’s challenge for a moon landing and the tragedy of the Apollo 1 fire, NASA made bold changes to Apollo 8, pressing ahead with a human lunar orbiting mission.

The decision sent the crew to the moon and back without a lunar module on the first human spaceflight of the Saturn V rocket and with a single engine on the capsule to bring them back home. 

After launching on Dec. 21, 1968, Borman, Lovell and Anders arrived in lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, orbiting the lunar surface 10 times.

When the crew emerged from behind the moon on the first orbit, the Apollo 8 astronauts shared images of the moon and Earth, including the view of Earthrise more than 240,000 miles away. The image of Earth with the moon below became one of the most well-known images of the Apollo era, according to NASA. 

Fast-forward more than 50 years to December 2022, and NASA’s Orion spacecraft, designed to carry the next humans to the moon, also shared a similar view of Earthrise. 

NASA managers had told the Apollo 8 astronauts to prepare to share some words with the world that would be broadcast around the globe. The crew was given the creative freedom to choose what to say but were told “to do something appropriate,” Borman said in a 2008 interview.

With that in mind, they chose to read the first 10 verses of the Book of Genesis.

Lovell said years later, the message was chosen because of its universal meaning.

ARTEMIS I MISSION HIGHLIGHTS: FROM MEGA MOON ROCKET LAUNCH TO ORION SPLASHDOWN

“The first ten verses of Genesis is the foundation of many of the world’s religions, not just the Christian religion,” Lovell said in 2008. “There are more people in other religions than the Christian religion around the world, and so this would be appropriate to that, and so that’s how it came to pass.”

As the Apollo 8 capsule orbited the moon more than 240,000 miles from Earth, each astronaut took turns reading verses.

“From the crew of Apollo 8, we close with goodnight, good luck, a merry Christmas, and god bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.”

The broadcast was seen or heard by 1 out of 4 people on Earth. 

The message from the moon would be the last before the astronauts attempted to return to Earth, and mission control waited to learn if Apollo 8’s engine burn to leave moon orbit worked. 

After the successful engine burn, Lovell told mission control, “Roger, please be informed there is a Santa Claus.”

The Apollo 8 capsule splashed down on Dec. 27, 1968, in the Pacific Ocean. 

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NASA Hid These Easter Eggs on the Artemis 1 Orion Capsule

The Orion capsule was uncrewed but filled with several mementos.
Image: NASA

Following its trip to the Moon and back, NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashed down into the Pacific Ocean on Sunday. The inaugural flight for the Artemis program may have been uncrewed, but Orion carried five souvenirs to honor a legacy of lunar exploration.

NASA has a longstanding tradition of stashing hidden messages and mementos on board its spacecraft. In 1977, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 launched to interstellar space carrying a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk known as The Golden Record. The phonograph record included various images and sounds that represent life on Earth, in case it is ever found by spacefaring aliens. More recently, NASA engineers encoded a binary message on the Perseverance rover’s parachute that read, “Dare Mighty Things.”

For the Artemis 1 mission to the Moon, NASA stuck to a lunar theme. The Orion capsule had five hidden messages placed around the crew cabin, NASA revealed in a press release on Saturday.

Binary code

Image: NASA

Binary code for the number 18 was placed on the top of the pilot’s seat as a tribute to NASA’s Apollo program. On December 11, 1972, the Apollo 17 mission touched down on the Moon, marking the last time astronauts walked on the lunar surface.

With the Artemis program, NASA is hoping to land humans on the Moon as part of the Artemis 3 mission set to take place no earlier than 2025. The number 18 symbolizes humanity’s return to the Moon following Apollo 17.

Fly Me to the Moon

Image: NASA

On the right side of the Orion spacecraft, the letters CBAGF are written below one of the windows. The letters symbolize Frank Sinatra’s song, “Fly Me to the Moon,” representing the musical notes of the familiar tune.

A tribute cardinal

Image: NASA

NASA placed an image of a cardinal above the window to the right of Orion’s pilot seat as a tribute to Mark Geyer, former Orion program manager, who died in 2021. Geyer was a devout St. Louis Cardinals fan, according to NASA.

Code for Charlie

Image: NASA

The space agency also paid tribute to the life of former Orion Deputy Program Manager Charlie Lundquist, who died in 2020.

NASA included the morse code for “Charlie” to recognize the role that Lundquist played in the development of Orion.

European cooperation

Image: NASA

NASA recognized the cooperation of its partners from the European Space Agency who developed the service module for the Orion spacecraft.

In front of the pilot’s seat, the space agency included the country codes of each country that took part in developing the spacecraft, including the United States, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Spain, and The Netherlands.

More: Orion Splashes Down in Pacific, Ending NASA’s Historic Artemis 1 Moon Mission

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Fifty years later, remastered images reveal Apollo 17 in stunning clarity

Enlarge / Eugene Cernan is seen inside the Lunar Module after a long day’s work on the lunar surface.

Andy Saunders/Apollo Remastered

Shortly after midnight, 50 years ago this morning, the Apollo 17 mission lifted off from Florida. With Gene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt, and Ron Evans on board, this was NASA’s sixth and final spaceflight to the lunar surface.

Cernan and Schmitt spent three days on the Moon, setting records for the longest distance traversed in their rover—7.6 km—and the amount of lunar rocks returned. But today, what the mission is perhaps most remembered for is the fact that it was the last time humans landed on the Moon—or even went beyond low Earth orbit.

Memorably, before he boarded the Lunar Module to blast off from the Moon’s surface, Cernan radioed back to Mission Control on Earth. People, he said, would return to the Moon “not too long into the future.” Speaking to him much later in life, it was clear from Cernan’s frustrations that he did not mean decades into the future.

When he died five years ago, at age 82, Cernan remained the last person to walk on the Moon.

Earlier this year, a British photographer named Andy Saunders published a book titled Apollo Remastered, which showcases 400 photos from the Apollo missions to the Moon. Astronauts took about 20,000 images on Hasselblad cameras during the Apollo program. Saunders has used various editing techniques, including stacking images from 16 mm video film, to create much clearer images from these iconic missions than have been seen before. The results are revealing and beautiful.

To mark the historic launch of Apollo 17, Saunders shared eight high-resolution images from his book with Ars, along with captions. You can click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

The photos

Harrison Schmitt, dressed in his coveralls, has floated through the tunnel, into the Lunar Module for its checkout. He is pointing the Minolta Space Meter (to assess the lighting for the camera settings) back at Ron Evans, who is in the tunnel. Gene Cernan’s portable life support system backpack is near his right elbow.

Andy Saunders/Apollo Remastered



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NASA Artemis I – Orion Spacecraft Surpasses Apollo 13 Record Distance From Earth

On flight day 11, NASA’S Orion spacecraft captured imagery looking back at the Earth from a camera mounted on one of its solar arrays. The spacecraft is currently in a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. Credit: NASA

On day 11 of the Artemis I mission, Orion continues its journey beyond the Moon after entering a distant retrograde orbit on Friday, November 25, at 3:52 p.m. CST. Orion will remain in this orbit for six days before exiting lunar orbit to put the spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth for a Sunday, December 11, splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

At 7:42 a.m. on Saturday, November 26, Orion surpassed the distance record for a mission with a spacecraft designed to carry humans to deep space and back to Earth. The record was set during the Apollo 13 mission at 248,655 miles (400,171 km) from our home planet. At its maximum distance from the Moon, Orion will be more than 270,000 miles (435,000 km) from Earth Monday, November 28.

Engineers also completed the first orbital maintenance burn by firing auxiliary thrusters on Orion’s service module at 3:52 p.m. for less than a second to propel the spacecraft at .47 feet per second. The planned orbital maintenance burns will fine-tune Orion’s trajectory as it continues its orbit around the Moon.

This high-resolution image captures the inside of the Orion crew module on flight day one of the Artemis I mission. At left is Commander Moonikin Campos, a purposeful passenger equipped with sensors to collect data that will help scientists and engineers understand the deep-space environment for future Artemis missions. At the center is the Callisto payload, a technology demonstration of voice-activated audio and video technology from Lockheed Martin in collaboration with Amazon and Cisco. Callisto could assist future astronauts on deep-space missions. Below and to the right of Callisto is the Artemis I zero-gravity indicator, astronaut Snoopy. Credit: NASA

Flying aboard Orion on the Artemis I mission is a suited manikin named after a key player in bringing Apollo 13 safely back to Earth. Arturo Campos was an electrical engineer who developed a plan to provide the command module with enough electrical power to navigate home safely after an oxygen tank aboard the service module of the Apollo spacecraft ruptured. Commander Moonikin Campos is outfitted with sensors to provide data on what crew members may experience in flight, continuing Campos’ legacy of enabling human exploration in deep space.

Artemis builds on the experience of Apollo. With Artemis, humans will return to the lunar surface, and this time to stay.
On Saturday, November 26, at 8:42 a.m. EST (13:42



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NASA’s Orion spacecraft breaks Apollo 13 flight record

The Artemis 1 Orion crew vehicle has set a new record for a NASA flight. At approximately 8:40AM ET on Saturday, Orion flew farther than any spacecraft designed to carry human astronauts had ever before, surpassing the previous record set by Apollo 13 back in 1970. As of 10:17AM ET, Orion was approximately 249,666 miles ( from 401,798 kilometers) from Earth.

“Artemis I was designed to stress the systems of Orion and we settled on the distant retrograde orbit as a really good way to do that,” said Jim Geffre, Orion spacecraft integration manager. “It just so happened that with that really large orbit, high altitude above the moon, we were able to pass the Apollo 13 record. But what was more important though, was pushing the boundaries of exploration and sending spacecraft farther than we had ever done before.”

Of all the missions that could have broken the record, it’s fitting that Artemis 1 was the one to do it. As Space.com points out, Apollo 13’s original flight plan didn’t call for a record-setting flight. It was only after a mid-mission explosion forced NASA to plot a new return course that Apollo 13’s Odyssey command module set the previous record at 248,655 miles (400,171 kilometers) from Earth.

With a limited oxygen supply on the Aquarius Lunar Module, NASA needed to get Apollo 13 back to Earth as quickly as possible. The agency eventually settled on a flight path that used the Moon’s gravity to slingshot Apollo 13 back to Earth. One of the NASA personnel who was critical to the safe return of astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise was Arturo Campos. He wrote the emergency plan that gave the Command and Service Module enough power to make it back to Earth. Artemis 1 is carrying a “Moonikin” test dummy named after the late Arturo.

Earlier this week, Orion completed a flyby of the Moon. After the spacecraft completes half an orbit around the satellite, it will slingshot itself toward the Earth. NASA expects Orion to splash down off the coast of San Diego on December 11th.

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NASA succeeds in putting Orion space capsule into lunar orbit, eclipsing Apollo 13’s distance

HOUSTON (CBS SF) — NASA engineers can exhale now. 

Mission controllers with the Artemis program just wrapped up a critical maneuver to put the Orion space capsule into a record-breaking lunar orbit. It will now eclipse Apollo 13 to become the most distant human-capable craft ever launched from Earth.

“The goal here is to test techniques and procedures – and the spacecraft – that NASA wants to use to resume human exploration of the moon,” says CBS News Space Consultant Bill Harwood. “They want to operate it in deep space, so they can really put it through the wringer.”

Except, in this case, there are no humans aboard. That will come later.

“The main key here is to have a successful mission so that we can start looking forward to being able to fly astronauts out to the moon,” says NASA’s Jacob Bleacher.

As for when that might happen? NASA is optimistic it will be sooner than you might think.

“Late 2025 is what we’re aiming for Artemis-3 to land our astronauts on the moon,” says Bleacher, who added that he sees that target date as, “likely.”

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