NASA disccuses Orion midpoint mission

NASA held an Artemis I mission status briefing Monday to preview Orion's distant retrograde orbit departure on Dec. 1 and recovery assets preparations for Dec. 11 splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

The capsule and its three test dummies entered lunar orbit more than a week after launching on the $4 billion demo that's meant to pave the way for astronauts. It will remain in this broad but stable orbit for nearly a week, completing just half a lap before heading home. As of Friday's engine firing, the capsule was 238,000 miles from Earth.

It's expected to reach a maximum distance of almost 270,000 miles in a few days. That will set a new distance record for a capsule designed to carry people one day. NASA considers this a dress rehearsal for the next moon flyby in 2024, with astronauts. A lunar landing by astronauts could follow as soon as 2025. Astronauts last visited the moon 50 years ago during Apollo 17.