Artemis: Losing contact with base and new Moon images

Image source, NASA

Image caption, One of the outside solar wings took this image - showing Earth and the Moon

The Artemis 1 mission's Orion capsule has successfully done a fly-by of the Moon and is heading home.

It has sent some incredible pictures back - showing the surface of the Moon in detail.

The capsule will make its way back to Earth soon, and will land in the Atlantic on 11th December.

First it has to complete what's called a 'distant retrograde orbit' - which should start today.

The Moon up-close and personal

Image source, NASA

As the capsule went past the Moon, it took some incredible images.

This included Orion's 'selfie' with the Moon, as well as one showing Earth in the background.

Orion's special camera was also able to get a close up of the craters on the Moon's surface.

Going dark

Image source, NASA

Image caption, As a test, the Orion capsule contains everything humans would need for an eventual Moon landing

During the fly-past, Orion lost contact with base.

Connection dropped between the capsule and experts on Earth for 47 minutes.

A special team of engineers at Nasa are currently working out why the disconnection happened - but they say Orion was not impacted and the spacecraft continued to work well.

But it's something experts will be looking at carefully as this mission was also a test of the technology that will be used to send humans to the Moon in the next Artemis mission.

What's next for Orion's Artemis 1 mission?

Image source, NASA

Image caption, The Orion spacecraft has more to do before it comes back to earth

Orion now has to enter a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon.

This means it's an orbit done at a distance - around 50,000 miles away from the surface of the Moon.

It should be done in six days, before exiting orbit and heading back to Earth.