A few hours after its launch, “Orion” sent the first images back to Earth. Among them is an impressive view from inside the space capsule.
Barely in space, the “Orion” space capsule is already sending its first images to Earth. According to Nasa, the images of the capsule with a partially illuminated Earth next to it were taken around nine hours after the launch of the giant SLS rocket, at the tip of which was “Orion”.
At the time the pictures were taken, the space capsule was more than 92,000 kilometres from Earth. That is about a fifth of the distance to the moon, as the tech magazine Space.com reports.
According to Nasa, this is the first image taken from a spacecraft suitable for humans since the last Apollo mission in 1972, Nasa spokeswoman Sandra Jones said in the video. The images of the blue planet in black space revived the imagination of a new generation – the Artemis generation.
Shortly after the images were published, Nasa posted another video on its Twitter account showing the interior of the space capsule. On it, you can also see the puppet “Commander Moonikin Campos”, which is flying along for tests. The doll is equipped with sensors that, among other things, measure the radiation exposure of the future crew in the space capsule.
“Orion” to orbit the moon
“Orion” was launched yesterday from the US spaceport Cape Canaveral. As part of the Artemis-1 mission, the space capsule will orbit around the moon. After four to six weeks in space, the space capsule is to land back on Earth.
We have written about the individual stages of “Orion” in another article. The mission is an important test for a manned flight, which is planned for 2024.
Later, another flight is planned with Artemis 3, which is to bring astronauts to the moon again for the first time. The launch is currently planned for 2025 at the earliest. A rover, i.e. a vehicle for the lunar surface, is also to come along.