A pair of lunar spacecraft zipped past each other as they traveled in nearly parallel orbits.
In a rare encounter, two lunar spacecraft crossed paths as they orbited the Moon in opposite directions.
’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, also known as Danuri, in a series of snapshots taken against the cratered backdrop of the Moon. The pair of lunar orbiters flew past each other between March 5 and 6, traveling in nearly parallel orbits around the Moon. LRO used its narrow angle camera to snap a series of photos of Danuri during three orbits, which were close enough for the orbiter to appear as a fuzzy speck.
. For perspective, this image covers an area that’s about 2 miles wide. As they zipped past each other, the relative velocities between the two spacecraft was at about 7,200 miles per hour. Due to the fast travel velocities, Danuri appears squished in the photos. Despite LRO’s camera exposure time being a mere 0.338 milliseconds, the Danuri spacecraft was still stretched to about 10 times its size, smeared across the frame in the opposite direction of where it’s headed.
spacecraft. Now, LRO has returned the favor by capturing the slimming photos of Danuri. LRO is the Moon’s local paparazzi, capturing photos of lunar missions such as India’s Chandrayaan-3, and others that weren’t as successful like Russia’s Luna 25 lander and Japan’s Hakuto-R M1 lander. For more spaceflight in your life, follow us on X and bookmark Gizmodo’s dedicated Spaceflight page.
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