gravity pulls space craft towards it. It's engines make it go round, the engines have to push the space craft away from the moon to stop it being pulled down to the surface
The force that causes a spacecraft to orbit the Moon is gravity. Gravity is the force of attraction between two objects with mass, like the Moon and the spacecraft, which keeps the spacecraft in orbit around the Moon.
The circling of the spacecraft around the moon is called its lunar orbit.
Apollo 8 was the first spacecraft to orbit the moon.
Our moon orbits the earth because it is held by gravity in an elliptical orbit.
The first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon was Apollo 8, which launched on December 21, 1968. It was the second manned mission in the Apollo program and made ten orbits around the moon before returning safely to Earth.
The first spacecraft to orbit the moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 10, which achieved lunar orbit on April 3, 1966. Luna 10 returned valuable data about the moon's magnetic field and radiation environment during its mission.
The spacecraft will be at a point known as the "Lagrange point," specifically L1, which lies between the Earth and the Moon. At this location, the gravitational forces from both the Earth and the Moon, along with the centrifugal force due to the spacecraft's orbit, balance each other out. This point is approximately 58,000 kilometers from the Moon and 326,000 kilometers from the Earth. Here, the spacecraft experiences a net gravitational force of zero, allowing it to maintain a stable position relative to both celestial bodies.
Orbit
One reason why landing a spacecraft on the moon takes careful planning is that the moon move along its own path (its own orbit).One reason why landing a spacecraft on the moon takes careful planning is that the moon always moves along its own orbit.
Apollo 8 became the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon on Christmas Eve in 1968.
The Apollo 8 spacecraft was the first spacecraft to orbit the moon and then return safely to earth.
A spacecraft that stays in orbit around a planet or moon is called a planetary orbiter. They are designed to study the surface, atmosphere, and environment of the celestial body they are orbiting.