The Orion space capsule and its test models circled the moon one last time on Monday, flying over a few Apollo landing sites before returning to NASA.
Orion will plunge into the Pacific Ocean off San Diego next Sunday, making room for astronauts on the next flight in two years.
The capsule passed 130 kilometers from the far side of the moon, using the moon’s gravity as a catapult to return to Earth, and spent a week in a wide lunar orbit.
Once it appeared behind the Moon and regained contact with flight control in Houston, Orion broadcast close-up images of the Moon and Earth appeared as a crescent moon in the distance.
“Orion is now waiting to come home,” said Mission Control commentator Sandra Jones.
The capsule also passed the landing sites of Apollo 12 and 14, but at an altitude of 9,600 km, it is difficult to determine the stages of landing the capsules coming to the moon or anything else that the astronauts left behind more than half a century ago.
The 3-week test flight has so far exceeded expectations, but the biggest challenge remains entering the atmosphere at 30 times the speed of sound.
The Orion capsule was launched on November 16 on the first flight of NASA’s most powerful rocket ever, the SLS.
The next flight, which is believed to be in 2024, will seek to carry 4 astronauts around the moon.
The third mission, expected in 2025, will be the first moon landing by astronauts since the Apollo moon program ended 50 years ago.
