Nasa's Orion capsule enters lunar orbit

Nasa's Orion capsule has entered an orbit that stretches tens of thousands of miles around the moon, as it neared the halfway mark of its test flight.

The capsule and its three test dummies entered lunar orbit more than a week after launching on the $4 bn demo that was meant to pave the way for astronauts. It will remain in this broad but stable orbit for nearly a week, completing just half a lap before heading home.

The vehicle was 238,000 miles 380,000 miles from Earth, as of an engine firing on Friday. It is expected to reach a maximum distance of almost 270,000 miles 432,000 km in a few days. That will set a new distance record for a capsule designed to carry people one day.

It is a statistic but it is symbolic for what it represents, said Jim Geffre, an Orion manager, in a Nasa interview earlier in the week. It is about challenging ourselves to go farther, stay longer and push beyond what we have previously explored. Nasa considers this a dress rehearsal for the next moon flyby in 2024, with astronauts. During Apollo 17, astronauts last visited the moon 50 years ago.

Mission Control in Houston lost contact with the capsule for nearly an hour earlier in the week. At the time, controllers were adjusting the communication link between Orion and the Deep Space Network. Officials said the spacecraft remained healthy.