<div style="text-align: justify; "><b><span style="font-size: 1rem;">NASA's Orion spacecraft was placed in lunar orbit Friday, officials said, as the much-delayed Moon mission proceeded successfully.</span><br></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">A little over a week after the spacecraft blasted off from Florida bound for the Moon, flight controllers "successfully performed a burn to insert Orion into a distant retrograde orbit," the US space agency said on its web site.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The spacecraft is to take astronauts to the Moon in the coming years -- the first to set foot on its surface since the last Apollo mission in 1972.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This first test flight, without a crew on board, aims to ensure that the vehicle is safe.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The orbit is distant in that Orion will fly about 40,000 miles above the Moon," NASA said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While in lunar orbit, flight controllers will monitor key systems and perform checkouts while in the environment of deep space, the agency said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It will take Orion about a week to complete half an orbit around the Moon. It will then exit the orbit for the return journey home, according to NASA.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Saturday, the ship is expected to go up to 40,000 miles beyond the Moon, a record for a habitable capsule. The current record is held by the Apollo 13 spacecraft at 248,655 miles (400,171 km) from Earth.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It will then begin the journey back to Earth, with a landing in the Pacific Ocean scheduled for December 11, after just over 25 days of flight.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The success of this mission will determine the future of the Artemis 2 mission, which will take astronauts around the Moon without landing, then Artemis 3, which will finally mark the return of humans to the lunar surface.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those missions are scheduled to take place in 2024 and 2025, respectively. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>