On Monday, December 5, the Orion spacecraft, as part of the Artemis 1 mission, flew for the second and last time at a distance of about 130 kilometers above the surface of the Moon, performing a maneuver to return to Earth in six days. SpaceNews reports this with reference to NASA.

It is noted that during the maneuver that occurred during the approach of the ship to the Moon, the main engine of the Orion service module worked for 3 minutes 27 seconds. After that, the ship entered the trajectory, allowing it to return to Earth.

SpaceNews recalls that Orion should splash down in the Pacific Ocean on December 11, where it will be met by the US Navy's Portland ship and delivered to the port of San Diego, California.

The publication notes that, in general, the Orion nodes are operating normally, however, there are probably problems with the fastening of the current limiter blocks in the ship's power system.

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In November, NASA reported that Orion had completed a maneuver to enter a deep retrograde orbit around the Moon.

In the same month, the US space agency showed the rising Earth captured by the Orion spacecraft.