Overview
- Orion, which entered the Moon’s gravitational sphere early Monday at 12:41 a.m. ET, is on track to surpass Apollo 13’s distance record at 1:56 p.m. before looping past the lunar far side.
- Closest approach comes at about 7:02 p.m. ET from roughly 4,070 miles above the surface, with an expected loss of signal beginning around 6:44 p.m. and communications resuming near 7:25 p.m.
- The crew will work through a science plan of about 30–35 targets, photographing and describing lunar features in real time, including the Orientale basin that NASA says is now seen fully by human eyes for the first time.
- Systems checks have advanced with manual piloting and full spacesuit operations tested, while engineers addressed intermittent toilet trouble linked to a frozen waste line and report bathroom use is now nominal.
- After the flyby, Orion begins the return arc for a planned Pacific splashdown near San Diego on Friday, with results feeding directly into Artemis missions that aim to put astronauts back on the Moon later this decade.