NASA's spacecraft Orion surpasses Apollo 13's flight record
The capsule went further on Saturday than any previous spacecraft designed to carry humans.
A new NASA flight record has been established by the Artemis 1 Orion crew vehicle. Orion broke the previous record set by Apollo 13 in 1970 when it flew farther than any spacecraft designed to carry human astronauts. Orion was approximately 249,666 miles (or 401,798 kilometers) away from Earth which marked another record.
NASA's spacecraft Orion surpasses Apollo 13's flight record
According to Orion spacecraft integration manager Jim Geffre, "Artemis I was designed to stress the systems of Orion, and we settled on the distant retrograde orbit as a really good way to do that."We were able to surpass the Apollo 13 record thanks to our extremely large orbit and high altitude above the moon.But pushing the boundaries of exploration and sending spacecraft farther than we had ever gone before was more important."
Houston, we have a new record 🌎
— NASA's Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) November 26, 2022
On Saturday Nov. 26, at 8:40 a.m. ET, @NASA_Orion broke the record for the farthest distance traveled from Earth of a human-rated spacecraft. The record was previously held by Apollo 13 at 248,655 statute miles from Earth. Go Artemis! pic.twitter.com/B4hcXHJESC
It's fitting that Artemis 1 broke the record out of all the missions that could have done so. According to Space.com, the original flight plan for Apollo 13 did not call for a record-breaking flight. Apollo 13's Odyssey command module broke the previous record of 248,655 miles (400,171 kilometers) from Earth when an explosion in the middle of the mission forced NASA to plot a new return course. NASA needed to get Apollo 13 back to Earth as soon as possible due to the Aquarius Lunar Module's limited oxygen supply.Apollo 13 was able to slingshot back to Earth thanks to the Moon's gravity, which was ultimately chosen by the agency.
