Artemis I as in the film Apollo 13, the Oscar photo of the Moon and Earth!

During the past day, the Artemis I mission said goodbye to the Moon with one last flyby, which brought the Orion spacecraft just over 127 km away from the surface before starting the long return journey that will bring it back to Earth. The main maneuver took place in a few minutes and ended with the ignition of the main engine which made it possible to direct the spacecraft in the right direction for the way home, as we reported yesterday in conjunction with the operation, which took place at 17.43 and shown live by NASA.

It was only one of the fundamental steps of the mission and those wishing to retrace the main stages of the mission can re-read the two main cumulative news with all the updates, which we propose again to follow.

As also reported in the recent update, there was much anticipation for the first images of the second lunar flybyalso because compared to those of the previous approach the position would have been different, as well as the lighting, and in fact we can say without a shadow of a doubt that one of the first photos published by NASA is incredible.

You can see it in the header and in a unique and bewitching shot we can identify the moon looming almost threateningly, the Orion spacecraft illuminated by the light, and in the background a fragment of our planet, small and distant.

Does it look like a family photo? In fact, it is somewhat so, since it has not been overlooked on the net the incredible resemblance to one of the posters of the film with Tom Hanks, Apollo 13, showing the Apollo spacecraft and an equally large Moon, with the Earth appearing near its curvature. Don’t you remember? See them side by side below, and don’t say the resemblance isn’t incredible!

In the meantime, the operations that will lead to the recovery of the spacecraft have already begun, which we recall will arrive on Earth on December 11, 2022. The mission management team has met to plan the intervention, so we know that as soon as Orion crashes in the ocean, a team of divers, engineers and technicians will leave the ship in small boats and arrive next to the capsule. Once secured, it will be towed to the rear of the support vessel.

At that point a real cable with winch will take care of dragging the spacecraft to the ship, until Orion is dragged into a specially designed cradle inside the vehicle’s bridge. Melissa Jones, director of landing and recovery, NASA Kennedy Space Center, commented on the operations.

“Last week, we completed our final trials with the USS Portland, which will be our recovery vessel for Artemis I. We had a fantastic three days working with them to refine our procedures and integrate our teams so we can achieve the recovery objectives of the Orion spacecraft”.

We close with a little curiosity about propellant consumption, which was decidedly lower than expected: Orion used about 3665 kg of propellant during Artemis I, which is about 80 kg less than expected. On balance, there should be a margin of about 940 kg of propellant compared to what is planned for the mission.