(Updated) Artemis I Orion spacecraft enters distant lunar orbit 10 days after liftoff

The uncrewed Artemis I Orion spacecraft has finally entered the lunar orbit, called distant retrograde orbit, 10 days after lift-off on NASA's Space Launch System rocket from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"Flight Controllers in the White Flight Control Room at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston successfully performed a burn to insert Orion into a distant retrograde orbit by firing the orbital maneuvering system engine for 1 minutes and 28 seconds at 4:52 p.m. CST, propelling the spacecraft at 363 feet per second," NASA said in a statement on Friday.

While in this distant lunar orbit, flight controllers will monitor the spacecraft's key systems and perform checkouts while in the environment of deep space.

.@NASA_Johnson flight controllers successfully performed a burn to insert @NASA_Orion into a distant retrograde orbit. While in lunar orbit, flight controllers will monitor key systems and perform checkouts while in the environment of deep space. https://t.co/d4vRXZL8UX pic.twitter.com/Pl4Qi5FYbW

— NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) November 25, 2022

The distant retrograde orbit is called so because the orbit is high altitude from the surface of the Moon (Orion will fly about 40,000 miles above the Moon) and opposite the direction of the Moon travels around Earth. Due to this distance, it will take the spacecraft nearly a week to complete half an orbit around the Moon, where it will exit the orbit for the return journey home.

Four days later, Orion will harness the Moon's gravitational force once again, combined with a precisely timed lunar flyby burn to slingshot onto its return course to Earth ahead of splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on December 11.

On Saturday, Nov. 26, Orion will break the record for the farthest distance travelled by a spacecraft designed to carry humans to space and safely return them to Earth. This distance is currently held by the Apollo 13 spacecraft at 248,655 miles (400,171 km) from Earth.

Update 1

Orion surpassed the distance record for a mission with a spacecraft designed to carry humans to deep space and back to Earth, at 7:42 a.m. Saturday. At its maximum distance from the Moon, Orion will be more than 270,000 miles from Earth Monday, Nov. 28.