00:00 And here you are looking at a live view of the Orion spacecraft from the solar array wing
00:07 with the Moon in the distance of the screen, the Earth in the distant frame of the screen,
00:14 and the Moon up close. Again, we are now less than 2,000 miles away from the Moon,
00:20 but over 200,000 miles away from planet Earth.
00:24 Orion started its journey five days ago from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida,
00:36 where it launched aboard the Space Launch System. Orion has been traveling to the Moon ever since,
00:43 performing checkouts of its systems, as this is an uncrewed test flight.
00:50 It's critical that NASA tests out the hardware and systems aboard Orion
00:55 ahead of flying a crew on board Artemis II.
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04:48 Now less than four minutes away from our expected loss of signal as Orion travels behind the Moon.
05:00 While behind the Moon, Orion will perform the outbound powered flyby,
05:06 which the team here in mission control is ready for.
05:10 Flight Director Rick LeBroad pulled the team. Everyone is pulling go.
05:14 Everything still on track for the outbound powered flyby burn, now 20 minutes away.
05:22 This outbound powered flyby will send Orion close enough to the lunar surface to leverage the Moon's gravitational force
05:29 and swing the spacecraft once around the Moon toward entry into distant retrograde orbit.
05:36 Following this, Orion will remain in the distant retrograde orbit for one long elliptical around the Moon,
05:42 which will last about six days.
05:44 Now this is different than what was done during the Apollo program,
05:48 when the spacecraft orbited much closer to the Moon.
05:52 Now this orbit is called distant due to the high altitude from the Moon.
05:56 It's about 40,000 miles past the Moon in its orbit.
06:00 This is actually 30,000 miles farther than the previous record set during Apollo 13
06:06 and will be the farthest in space any spacecraft built for humans will have ever flown.
06:12 This orbit is called retrograde because Orion will travel around the Moon opposite the direction the Moon travels around Earth.
06:23 Distant retrograde orbit provides a highly stable orbit where little fuel is required to stay for an extended trip in deep space
06:31 and allows the opportunity to put Orion's systems to the test in an environment far from Earth.
06:38 We are now less than two minutes away from our anticipated loss of signal as Orion travels behind the Moon.
06:46 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
06:51 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
06:56 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
07:25 As we continue to get live views here for the next minute or so,
07:29 we will potentially see the Earth start to go just behind the Moon as Orion travels behind the Moon.
07:36 We will not have Earth views of course because the Moon will be blocking the Orion spacecraft.
07:44 However, we do anticipate an acquisition of signal at 6.59 a.m. Central.
07:51 It's about a 34-minute loss of signal at which point we hope to regain communications with the spacecraft.
07:58 [PAUSE]
08:24 Five seconds away from our anticipated loss of signal.
08:28 And we do have loss of signal. Again, this is a 34-minute, 4-second loss of signal.
08:39 [PAUSE]
