WORLD NEWS: Artemis II leaves Earth’s orbit and heads to the Moon
According to recent reports, the following story has emerged from the international scene.
The Orion capsule carrying four astronauts on NASA’s Artemis II mission performed a key ignition of its thrusters on Thursday, April 2, which put the crew on a trajectory that takes them away from Earth’s orbit in the direction of the moon, NASA reported. The maneuver lasted 5 minutes and 49 seconds and required the ship to undergo a speed change of 388 meters per second to leave Earth’s orbit, according to the space agency. This milestone makes the four Artemis II astronauts the first humans to leave the orbit of our planet since the Apollo 17 crew traveled to the Moon in 1972. Unlike that mission, Artemis II will not land on the moon and is only scheduled to reach the orbit of that satellite before returning to Earth, in a total journey of ten days. After the maneuver, NASA director Jared Isaacman celebrated on his X account, ensuring that the four astronauts were officially “on their way to the Moon.” To display this content from X (Twitter), you must allow audience measurement and advertising cookies. Accept Manage my options During their passage through the far side of the satellite, scheduled for April 6, the Orion crew will be more than 400,000 kilometers away from our planet and will surpass the record set by Apollo 13 for a mission that transports human beings. NASA gave the go-ahead to leave Earth’s orbit 25 hours after takeoff, which took place on Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. Eastern Time (22:35 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida. During this time, previously stipulated in the mission schedule, the ship orbited the Earth while NASA teams evaluated their systems to verify that everything was working before making a decision. Once heading to the Moon, a journey that will last four days, “flight controllers will closely monitor engine performance, guidance and navigation data throughout the maneuver to ensure Orion remains precisely aligned for the outward journey,” NASA clarified. The Artemis II crew is made up of Commander Reid Wiseman, Specialist Christina Koch and Pilot Victor Glover, all three from NASA, as well as Jeremy Hansen, from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). To display this YouTube content, you must allow advertising and audience measurement cookies. Accept Manage my options An extension in your browser appears to be blocking the video player from loading. In order to view this content, you must disable it on this site. Try again © France 24 After almost three years of training, the crew is the first to fly in NASA’s Artemis program, a series of multimillion-dollar missions created in 2017 to establish a long-term American presence on the Moon for the next decade and beyond. Read alsoArtemis II: the historic mission to the Moon takes off With EFE and Reuters
What This Means:
This development could have far-reaching consequences for global politics in the months ahead.
This is part of a broader trend that has been reshaping the geopolitical landscape in recent months.
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Source: This article was originally published in another language by France 24 – Noticias y actualidad internacional en vivo and has been translated and adapted for our global English-speaking audience. Read the original article here.