Sentences with phrase «reach lunar orbit»

The orbiter is expected to take about 5 days to reach lunar orbit, less than half the time it took a predecessor, Chang «e-1, to make a similar trip 3 years ago.

Not exact matches

It should be awfully similar to the circumlunar Apollo 8 mission (the second crewed mission in the Apollo program, and the first to reach the moon's orbit) and Apollo 13 (the aborted lunar landing mission in which a circumlunar flight was used to help slingshot the crew and its damaged spacecraft back to Earth).

Just as important, the team concluded that once TESS reached its P / 2 orbit — through a series of maneuvers also involving a lunar flyby to gain momentum from the Moon's gravity — it would remain stably in that orbit for several decades.

If everything else goes well — including a lunar flyby in May researchers will start getting results from the planet - hunting telescope in a few months, after it reaches its final orbit in June.

One idea would be to reduce the crew size from four to the three of the Apollo days, with the idea that on the Outpost - type fortnight - or - more span expeditions, we'll be able to send the whole crew down to the surface, leaving the Orion (or whichever) orbiter craft, untended in low lunar orbit, to be reached by the crew later.