US (bbabo.net) - The test unmanned American spacecraft Orion on Monday will make an autonomous flight around the moon for the second time at low altitude, after which it will head towards Earth, NASA reports. The maximum approach to the surface of the Moon will be about 129 km.

As NASA reported, on December 1, Orion made a successful maneuver to descend from a far retrograde orbit around the Moon, where it had been for six days. At that time, the distance to the surface of the moon was about 85 thousand km. The location of the ship in this orbit made it possible to evaluate the capabilities of the device and test its systems at a great distance from the Earth.

On December 11, Orion is due to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.

On board is a dummy, the sensors on which should measure the impact of flight conditions on future crews.

The American spacecraft Orion, as part of a test unmanned flight on November 21, made its first successful flyby of the moon. In the region of the Far Side of the Moon, Orion flew at an altitude of 130 km from the surface to the natural satellite of the Earth, and then began to gradually move away from it in order to enter the planned far retrograde orbit around the natural satellite of the Earth.

The spacecraft was launched on November 16 by a Space Launch System (SLS) super-heavy launch vehicle as part of the Artemis 1 (Artemis-1) mission. The rocket was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Artemis program was made public in September 2020. Its main goal is the return of American astronauts to the lunar surface 53 years after the last mission, the construction of a near-lunar station and the preparation of conditions for the possible colonization of the Moon in the future.

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