Watch the next major phase of NASA’s Artemis 1 Moon mission start here at 4:52PM ET

The subsequent main section of NASA’s mission is . Orion is scheduled to conduct a burn at 4:52PM ET that may take it right into a distant retrograde orbit across the Moon. The uncrewed spacecraft will likely be round 50,000 miles above the lunar floor and it’ll journey across the Moon in the other way that the Moon orbits the Earth (therefore the “retrograde” facet of this section).

says that, because of the dimension of the orbit, it would take Orion six days to go midway across the Moon. It should then exit the orbit and begin making its manner again to Earth. The company that this course of will present Orion with a “extremely secure orbit the place little gas is required to remain for an prolonged journey in deep house.” The orbit is secure as a result of Orion will likely be topic to the gravitational pull of each the Earth and the Moon, which is able to assist it to remain in place whereas minimizing gas consumption.

In the course of the distant retrograde orbit, NASA will be capable to put Orion’s methods via their paces in an setting far-off from our planet. The Artemis 1 mission is primarily about testing Orion earlier than the spacecraft takes people again to the Moon for the primary time in over half a century.

Earlier this week, Orion efficiently whereby it obtained as shut as 81 miles to the lunar floor. This was the primary of two maneuvers wanted to get Orion into its retrograde orbit earlier than in the present day’s burn.

You can watch the distant retrograde orbit burn reside under. NASA says the feed will embrace real-time views of the mission at any time when bandwidth permits.