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NASA’s Orion capsule has reached the moon, whipping around the far side and buzzing the lunar surface on its way to a record-breaking orbit with test dummies sitting in for astronauts. It is the first time a capsule has visited the moon since NASA’s Apollo program 50 years ago, and represents a huge milestone in the $US4.1 billion ($A6.2 billion) test flight that began last Wednesday. WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: NASA’s Orion space capsule has reached the moon Watch the latest News on Channel 7 or stream for free on 7plus >> The close approach of 130km occurred as the crew capsule and its three wired-up dummies were on the far side of the moon. Because of a half-hour communication blackout, flight controllers in Houston did not know if the critical engine firing went well until the capsule emerged from behind the moon, 370,000km from earth. The capsule ’s cameras sent back a picture of the world - a tiny blue orb surrounded by blackness. “Our pale blue dot and its eight billion huma...

NASA's uncrewed Orion capsule hurtled through space on Sunday on the final return leg of its voyage around the moon and back, winding up the inaugural mission of the Artemis lunar programme 50 years to the day after Apollo's final moon landing. The gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule , carrying a simulated crew of three mannequins wired with sensors, was due to parachute into the Pacific at 9:39am PST (1739 GMT) near Guadalupe Island, off Mexico's Baja California peninsula. Orion was nearing the end of its 25-day mission less than a week after passing about 79 miles (127 km) above the moon in a lunar fly-by and about two weeks after reaching its farthest point in space, nearly 270,000 miles (434,500 km) from Earth. After jettisoning the service module housing its main rocket system, the capsule was expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere at 24,500 miles per hour (39,400 kph) - more than 30 times the speed of sound - for a fiery, 20-minute plunge to the ocean. Orion blast...