NASA's Orion beams stunning views of Earth from space after historic Artemis 1 launch

NASA’s Orion spacecraft escaped the Earth’s gravity roughly two hours after it launched atop the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at 12:17 pm IST on November 16 from the Kennedy Space Center.

This marked the commencement of the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission, the first of the Artemis Program, which will test the capabilities of both Orion and the SLS rocket. The success was significant as the mission finally launched after two failed attempts in August and September this year. 

About four hours after the launch, NASA shared stunning pictures of our planet Earth captured by the camera on the solar arrays of the Orion spacecraft. These views were captured while Orion is on a solo journey toward the Moon after it separated from the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) of the SLS rocket. 

The Artemis era begins

Artemis 1 has kickstarted the Artemis era nearly five decades after man last stepped foot on the Moon during the Apollo Program. The SLS rocket lifted off as the world's most powerful rocket when it roared to orbit generating a peak thrust of 8.8 million pounds, 15% greater than Saturn V used in Apollo missions. Just a few minutes after the launch, the twin solid boosters on the side of the SLS rocket separated from the ICPS and will fall into the ocean as none of the rocket parts are reusable. 

A little over an hour after launch, the ICPS conducted a trans-lunar injection burn to send Orion on a lunar trajectory. Following this sequence, the ICPS is currently heading toward a heliocentric orbit and will start deploying ten CubeSats for various science experiments. 

This TLI maneuver, meanwhile, was necessary to ensure that the spacecraft escapes Earth's gravity and gets on track for a journey to the Moon. As for Orion, it will take a few days for it to reach the Moon. According to NASA, Orion will come as close as 96 km to the lunar surface and fly as far as over 60,000 km, thus becoming the first human-rated spacecraft on such a journey. 

Orion is designed to accommodate four astronauts who will board the spacecraft during Artemis 2 if it completes the mission requirements. Moreover, the spacecraft is 30% larger than an Apollo capsule which could carry only three astronauts. While there are no astronauts onboard, Orion has mannequins that will be used to collect spaceflight data to be used in future missions. In addition to this, the capsule is also carrying new technologies that will be demonstrated along with 10,000 objects including mementos from Apollo missions.