Because the Space Launch System with its initial Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage and Orion service module do not have the capability of entering lunar orbit, Artemis II will simply loop around the Moon as Apollo 13 did after its service module exploded en route to the Moon. Because neither of the previous flights of the Orion spacecraft has tested its life support system, the flight will first fly one high orbit around the Earth before committing to the eight day flight out to the Moon and back, during which failure of the life support system would be undesirable.
A new milestone for humankind: The crew of Artemis II are now the farthest any human has ever travelled, reaching a maximum distance of 252,752 miles from Earth.
This surpasses the previous record set by Apollo 13 in 1970 by about 4,102 miles. pic.twitter.com/DbLFvvdEfT
Interesting! The first lunar flyby during the lifetimes of the majority of people on Planet Earth today – and successful too. Yet it is not even above the fold in most media.
Are we all too sophisticated & jaded these days? Or is our media total crap?
Nobody cares about a do-over more than half a century. When Apollo 8 did this, something like 1/4 of the people on this planet at the time watched the crew’s Christmas Eve broadcast. Could you even imagine anything like that today?
It was two wives ago, with the gifted #1 (a child prodigy who looked like Brigitte Bardot, and believing church organist) and a Mormon couple. We were in a chalet in Mayens de Riddes (Valais) and heard this. Especially in that setting, it was profoundly memorable. There were still hopes and meaning beyond who controlled Washington, then.
