Four astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis II test flight around the Moon made history at 12:56 p.m. CDT on Monday, traveling 248,655 miles from Earth, surpassing the record for human spaceflight’s farthest distance previously set by the Apollo 13 mission in 1970. At its farthest point, crew inside the Orion spacecraft will have traveled about 252,760 miles, before looping back toward our home planet, setting the new record for human spaceflight.
Six days into the first crewed mission of NASA’s Artemis program, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen continued collecting pictures of the Moon on their voyage away from Earth.
“At NASA, we dare to reach higher, explore farther, and achieve the impossible. That’s embodied perfectly by our Artemis II astronauts – Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy. They are charting new frontiers for all humanity,” said Dr. Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Their dedication is about more than breaking records – it’s fueling our hope for a bold future. Their mission is carrying our promise to return to the Moon’s surface, this time to stay as we establish a Moon Base.”
NASA’s Orion spacecraft began its journey to the Moon following a successful April 1 launch on an SLS (Space Launch System) rocket from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After conducting a series of burns to break free of Earth orbit the following day, the spacecraft set its path toward the Moon.
Following their record achievement, crew provided brief, emotional remarks. The world heard from CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen aboard Orion:
“From the cabin of Integrity here, as we surpass the furthest distance humans have ever traveled from planet Earth, we do so in honoring the extraordinary efforts and feats of our predecessors in human space exploration. We will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back to everything that we hold dear. But we most importantly choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived.”
In addition to their spaceflight record, crew suggested naming two craters on the Moon during their flight. The first is named in honor of their spacecraft, Integrity. The second honors Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll. After this mission is complete, the crater name proposals will be formally submitted to the International Astronomical Union, the organization that governs the naming of celestial bodies and their surface features.
When they fly past the Moon later, crew will come within about 4,070 miles from its surface at the closest approach. The astronauts will be the first to see the far side of the Moon with human eyes and are the first to travel behind the Moon. Finally, they will witness a solar eclipse as the Moon passes in front of the Sun.
NASA is expecting to lose communication with the astronauts for about 40 minutes during a planned blackout period. The break will occur as the Moon blocks signals between the spacecraft and the Earth through the Deep Space Network. When Orion reemerges from behind the Moon, it is expected to quickly reacquire contact with flight controllers in the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
During their lunar flyby, a fleet of cameras will capture imagery of the Moon, including features humans have never directly seen. The astronauts will use a variety of digital handheld cameras to conduct high-resolution photography of the lunar surface. Artemis II is providing astronauts an opportunity to gather data as one of the most powerful scientific tools for observation are the four pairs of eyes observing lunar features with varying illumination and texture.
Photos, videos, mission telemetry, and communication information are all sources of data from the test flight, which will be used to inform future Artemis missions as the agency embarks on development of its Moon Base.
The Artemis II astronauts are more than halfway through their mission. The crew is scheduled to splash down off the coast of San Diego at approximately 8:07 p.m. EDT (5:07 p.m. PDT) on Friday, April 10. Following splashdown, recovery teams will retrieve the crew members using helicopters and deliver them to the USS John P. Murtha. Once aboard, the astronauts will undergo post-flight medical evaluations in the ship’s medical bay before traveling back to shore to meet with an aircraft bound for NASA Johnson.
Under the Artemis program, NASA will send Artemis astronauts on increasingly challenging missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build on our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
For the latest mission progress, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-ii
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Cheryl Warner / Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
