Our European Service Module is driving the Artemis II crew back to Earth ????

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UFONews
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After delivering the biggest propulsion manoeuvre of the mission after launch, our European Service Module is still hard at work guiding Orion home.

While the translunar injection burn set the spacecraft on its path, six smaller trajectory correction manoeuvres were planned to keep everything perfectly on track: three on the way to the Moon, and three on the way back.

Thanks to the incredible precision of the translunar injection burn, the first two outbound corrections were not even needed. The third took place on flight day 5. Now on the return journey, the first correction burn was completed on flight day 7, with two more coming on flight days 9 and 10.

These burns are carefully planned hours in advance by flight control, who decide exactly how much adjustment Orion needs and which of the European Service Module’s engines should fire. Sometimes, just a 10 second pulse from the reaction control thrusters is enough to fine-tune the spacecraft’s attitude and trajectory.

With crew on board, even small disturbances like movement inside the capsule or venting can slightly affect Orion’s orientation, but Europe’s module handles it with ease.

The final burn will happen just hours before separation and splashdown in the Pacific.

???? European Space Agency (ESA)

#ESA #Artemis #Moon
Category
Deep Space
Tags
ESA, European Space Agency, Moon
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