Orion set to shatter another NASA record

This weekend, NASA will try to break its distance record for a spacecraft designed for astronauts, set by Apollo 13 in 1970 at 250,000 miles from earth. Orion will spend nearly a week in lunar orbit and will reach a maximum distance from Earth next Monday at nearly 270,000 miles.

The spacecraft is planned to return to Earth via splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 11.

When is the next lunar landing attempt?

Astronauts are set to take Orion around the moon by as early as 2024, and a lunar landing will be attempted in 2025 with SpaceX’s Starship because Orion has no lunar lander.

“Our pale blue dot and its 8 billion human inhabitants now coming into view.”

Mission Control commentator Sandra Jones

PROVIDED BY LIAM YANULIS/ NASA NASA VIA AP This artist’s rendering shows NASA's Orion spacecraft in orbit around the moon. Artemis I is the first integrated flight test of NASA’s deep space exploration system. This image from NASA TV shows NASA’s Orion capsule nearing the moon on Monday.