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The bright and yet dark side of the Moon...
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NASA officials say Artemis 1 mission teams are "giddy" after witnessing how well their Orion spacecraft has been performing so far on its way towards Lunar Orbit.
Artemis 1 launched at 01:47 EST (06:47 GMT) on Nov. 16, blasting off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida in a spectacular display of the sheer power of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The Orion spacecraft reached Earth orbit shortly after, and then at 87 minutes after launch performed a so-called Trans Lunar Injection burn to send it hurtling towards the moon. On Monday (Nov. 21), Orion performed another burn to send the Spacecraft close enough to the Lunar Surface to leverage (---> use, take advantage of) the Moon's Gravity to pull the Spacecraft around the Moon itself into a distant retrograde orbit.
After collecting data from that propulsive maneuver, NASA Officials held a briefing Monday evening (Nov. 21) to discuss Orion's powered flyby of the Moon. Judd Frieling, flight director at NASA's Johnson Space Center, said Orion Mission Team Members are "giddy" (to have a sensation of whirling and then a tendency to fall; synonym: dizzy) with the current performance they are seeing from the spacecraft after the flyby, which saw the Spacecraft come within about 80 miles of the Lunar Surface.
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(Dettagli)
