ORLANDO, Fla. — NASA officials said the Orion spacecraft is approaching its farthest distance from Earth on Monday, two days after breaking a record set by Apollo 13.
On Saturday, Orion, which launched atop the Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 16, surpassed the previous record of 248,655 miles from the planet, which was the farthest away from Earth astronauts Jim Lovell, John Swigert and Fred Haise traveled during their aborted 1970 moon-landing mission.
The uncrewed Orion, which has three mannequin passengers on board, is set to travel to 268,554 miles from Earth by 4:48 p.m. Eastern time as part of the capsules’ distant retrograde orbit (DRO) around the moon.
