Flight Controllers  at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston successfully fired Orion’s orbital maneuvering system engine to place the spacecraft into a distrant retrograde orbit. The engine fired for 1 minute and 28 seconds at 4:52 p.m. CST, propelling the spacecraft at 363 feet per second. Shortly before conducting the burn, Orion was traveling over 57,000 miles above the lunar surface, marking the farthest distance it will reach from the Moon during the mission. While in lunar orbit, flight controllers in the White Flight Control Room will monitor key systems and perform checkouts while in the environment of deep space. The orbit is distant in that Orion will fly about 40,000 miles above the Moon. Due to the distance of the orbit, it will take Orion nearly a week to complete half an orbit around the Moon, where it will exit the orbit for the return journey home.

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