Apparently, the apogee will be on April 6th (calculator). So something like 405000 km, plus the swing from the free-return trajectory which (Mistral tells me) will take them 7600 km beyond the Moon.
Thanks for the data! So they were not lying? Color me surprised.
The real question is, which of the four astronauts will be farthest from Earth when the ship reaches that point? I wonder if they will be fighting for that seat.
As this will happen during the famous forty minute communication breakdown there will not only be a nice whodunnit opportunity but also great 0G slapstick without the interference of the party spoilering ground controllers. I hope the cameras register all that and put it in YouTube to the tune of Yakety Sax.
Finally getting some in-cabin video. I heard the CapCom mention the crew is scheduled to take some time to talk to (at?) the viewing public. (After they cut the public feed for some private family communication.)
Instead of that, I think all we have to determine is the distance that Integrity will be when it’s at its farthest point.
It is supposed to happen at 23:09, on 6 Apr., which would make it 413113 km from the Centre of the Earth… (the surface is somewhat closer, of course)
[What are you trying to calculate?]
Is this really going to happen at $4 billion + per rocket?
Except that Antarctic research can be done with off the shelf equipment. We didn’t have to ltierally invent the airplane to get there.
Right about to pass the halfway point between Earth and Moon, now.
Ninja’d by @Velocity, but I was watching for that very moment – with the five-second updates, here’s the halfway point just seconds later:
Orion will continue slowing for quite some time yet, as the point of gravitational equilibrium is obviusly much closer to the moon than to earth. Beyond that point, it will begin accelerating, pulled in by the moon’s gravity.