Earthset as Orion Prepares for Outbound Powered Flyby

Earthset as Orion Prepares for Outbound Powered Flyby

The Earth is seen setting from the far side of the Moon just beyond the Orion spacecraft in this video taken on the sixth day of the Artemis I mission by a camera on the tip of one of Orion's solar arrays.

The spacecraft was preparing for the Outbound Powered Flyby maneuver which would bring it within 80 miles of the lunar surface, the closest approach of the uncrewed Artemis I mission, before moving into a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon.

The spacecraft entered the lunar sphere of influence Sunday, Nov.

20, making the Moon, instead of Earth, the main gravitational force acting on the spacecraft.