It covers roughly 3,680 kilometres an hour along its orbit, which works out at almost exactly the muzzle velocity of a rifle bullet — and about an eighth the speed of the space station.

Orbital speed falls with distance, and at 384,400 kilometres out the Moon is dawdling compared with something skimming low Earth orbit at eight kilometres a second. It still travels about 2.4 million kilometres in a month, which is the circumference of a very large circle covered at what is, astronomically, a stroll.