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Low lunar orbit (LLO) is an orbit below 100 km (62 mi) altitude. These have a period of about 2 hours. [ 2 ] They are of particular interest in the exploration of the Moon , but suffer from gravitational perturbations that make most unstable, and leave only a few orbital trajectories possible for indefinite frozen orbits .
The lunar orbit's major axis – the longest diameter of the orbit, joining its nearest and farthest points, the perigee and apogee, respectively – makes one complete revolution every 8.85 Earth years, or 3,232.6054 days, as it rotates slowly in the same direction as the Moon itself (direct motion) – meaning precesses eastward by 360°.
The Moon's orbit is slightly elliptical, with an orbital eccentricity of 0.055. [1] The semi-major axis of the geocentric lunar orbit, called the lunar distance, is approximately 400,000 km (250,000 miles or 1.28 light-seconds), comparable to going around Earth 9.5 times. [178]
(Reuters) -A moon lander built by Houston-based company Intuitive Machines reached lunar orbit on Wednesday, heading for an attempt at the first U.S. touchdown on Earth's nearest celestial ...
The spacecraft, called Blue Moon, is one of two vehicles NASA has picked to potentially ferry astronauts from lunar orbit down to the surface of the moon. Blue Origin’s contract for that task is ...
The spacecraft is expected to first enter an orbit around Earth before transferring to a lunar orbit and ultimately descending to the surface of the moon. Russia’s last lunar lander , Luna 24 ...
Lunar Module Eagle (LM-5) is the spacecraft that served as the crewed lunar lander of Apollo 11, which was the first mission to land humans on the Moon. It was named after the bald eagle , which was featured prominently on the mission insignia .
A lunar node is either of the two orbital nodes of the Moon, that is, the two points at which the orbit of the Moon intersects the ecliptic. The ascending (or north) node is where the Moon moves into the northern ecliptic hemisphere, while the descending (or south) node is where the Moon enters the southern ecliptic hemisphere.