Its good to see constructive discussion on these questions.
Lets review the actions that take place in past:
NASA - reported
Orion - gone deeper
NASA estimated
Past perfect tense is used to show sequencing of RELATED events that took place in different times in the past.
The two events that are related here are - Orion gone deeper and NASA estimated. So if at all past perfect tense should be used, it should be used for these two events.
However, in this case, we do not need to use past perfect tense to establish the sequencing since the use of previously sets up the sequencing of these two events stating clearly that NASA estimated previously and then Orion went deeper.
Furthermore, use of present perfect tense is more appropriate here since Orion is still deep inside the space and hence the effect of the action is still valid.
We hope this helps.
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