Artemis 1 mission: NASA's Orion set to travel farther than any human-rated spacecraft ever

The Space Launch System (SLS rocket) is standing tall at the Launch Complex 39B of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for an uncrewed launch under NASA's Artemis 1 mission. The rocket will take off during a two-hour launch window that opens at 11:34 am IST as the world's most powerful rocket. Measuring 322 feet tall, SLS is mounted with the Orion spacecraft, which will take to the skies and travel farther than any human-rated spacecraft has ever done. 

Orion inches closer to making history

The Orion spacecraft is composed of three major components-- the Launch Abort System (LAS), the Crew module and the European Service Module (ESM). The LAS is equipped with three thrusters that will break free from the rest of the rocket after automatically detecting a launch anomaly and jettisoning away with the astronauts in the crew module for a safe landing. The ESM, a contribution of the European Space Agency, is what would power the crew module using its four solar panels.

According to the mission profile, the LAS will separate from the crew module after it has safely exited the Earth's atmosphere, and the next step that follows would be the trans-lunar injection (TLI). This maneuver will be carried out using the SLS rocket's core stage a few minutes after the launch to make the ESM-crew module leave Earth's gravity. Once the TLI is executed successfully, Orion (the ESM-crew module combo) will swing to the Moon for its three-week mission.

NASA says that Orion will travel over 45,000 km beyond Earth and over 60,000 km beyond the Moon before it uses the lunar gravity to sling back to Earth. Estimated to last 25 days, 11 hours, 36 minutes, Artemis 1 will end with a splashdown of Orion in the Pacific Ocean on December 11. 

(Orion's path to the Moon and back during Artemis 1; Image: NASA)

It is worth noting that Artemis 1 is an uncrewed mission that is being launched to test the Orion spacecraft to see if it can transport astronauts to the Moon and bring them back safely. The same goes for the non-reusable SLS rocket which will generate 8.8 million pounds of thrust during the launch and be crowned as the world's most powerful rocket.