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- At 1:57 p.m. ET, Artemis II’s Orion spacecraft broke the distance record for the farthest humans have travelled from Earth.
- At about 6:44 p.m. ET, mission control lost contact with the crew for about 40 minutes as the spacecraft passed behind the moon.
- Around 7 p.m. ET, the crew reached its closest approach to the moon, when the astronauts became the first humans to see parts of the moon’s far side with the naked eye.
- At about 8:32 p.m. ET the spacecraft entered an eclipse, with the sun behind the moon from the crew’s perspective, for about an hour.
- The lunar flyby observation period wrapped at about 9:35 p.m. ET. The crew will begin transferring its images to NASA’s team on the ground as they head for home.
The Artemis II crew struggled with words to describe the views as they entered a total solar eclipse Monday evening, before completing a record-breaking trip around the moon.
“Humans probably have not evolved to see what we’re seeing,” said pilot Victor Glover. “It is truly hard to describe. It is amazing.”
Commander Reid Wiseman jumped in to call the sights “absolutely spectacular” and “surreal.”
“There’s no adjectives. I need to invent some new ones to describe what we’re looking at out this window,” he said.
Crew members reported seeing flashes from meteors hitting the moon, and seeing details on the moon’s surface as well as Mars, Venus and Saturn in the distance.
The historic mission broke the distance record Monday as the farthest humans have flown from Earth. The capsule is now pointed back toward Earth, with a landing planned for Friday.
After a 40-minute communications blackout, the Artemis II crew is now back in contact with NASA mission control after the Orion spacecraft passed behind the moon. ‘It is so great to hear from Earth again,’ mission specialist Christina Koch said.
Before the eclipse, Artemis II’s Orion spacecraft had lost its communication with mission control for about 40 minutes, as expected, starting at 6:44 p.m. ET. as it passed behind the moon.
“It is so great to hear from Earth again,” mission specialist Christina Koch said when the crew regained its signal. “To Asia, Africa and Oceania, we are looking back at you. We hear you can look up and see the moon right now. We see you, too.”
Koch talked about space exploration to come, including returning to the moon to do further research and build infrastructure.
“But ultimately, we will always choose Earth,” she said. “We will always choose each other.”
The distance record was broken at 1:57 p.m. ET as the crew of four astronauts passed the record of 400,171 kilometres from Earth set by Apollo 13 in April 1970. NASA says Orion reached 406,771 kilometres Monday.
The Canadian Space Agency says astronaut Jeremy Hansen and his three American crewmates are now the space explorers who have ventured farther into space than anyone before.
(NASA/The Associated Press)
“It is blowing my mind what you can see with the naked eye from the moon right now. It is just unbelievable,” Hansen radioed ahead of the flyby. He challenged “this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived.”
Hansen earlier said he and his team would be seeing the moon close enough that it would look like a basketball held at arm’s reach.
Former Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean says that while the mission is a “test” one, it’s still momentous.
“It’s taken us a long time to get here,” MacLean told CBC News. “Fifty-four years since Apollo. It’s generations of leadership to get the strategy in place for this.”
The Artemis II mission’s Orion spacecraft and the four astronauts on board made history by travelling farther into space than ever before — breaking a record set by Apollo 13 in 1970 — and also becoming the first crew to go to the far side of the moon.
Moments after breaking Apollo 13’s record, the astronauts asked permission to name two fresh lunar craters already observed. They proposed Integrity, their capsule’s name, and Carroll, in honour of Wiseman’s late wife who died of cancer in 2020. Wiseman wept as Hansen put in the request to Mission Control, and all four astronauts embraced in tears.
“Such a majestic view out here,” Wiseman said.
The astronauts started the momentous day with the voice of Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, who recorded a wake-up message just two months before his death last August.
“Welcome to my old neighbourhood,” said Lovell, who also flew on Apollo 8, humanity’s first lunar visit. “It’s a historic day and I know how busy you’ll be, but don’t forget to enjoy the view.”
The crew took up with them the Apollo 8 silk patch that accompanied Lovell to the moon, and showed it off as the crucial flyby approached. “It’s just a real honour to have that on board with us,” said Wiseman. “Let’s go have a great day.”
As Orion passed behind the moon, the spacecraft entered a communications blackout as the lunar surface blocks radio signals.
Around 7 p.m., it came as close as about 6,545 kilometres to the moon’s surface, and from that vantage point Hansen has said the moon would look like a basketball held at arm’s length.
For about seven hours, the crew took turns observing and photographing geological features on the moon, like impact craters and ancient lava flows.
Wiseman, Hansen, Koch and Glover are on track to whip past the moon, hang a U-turn and then heads back toward Earth.
It will take them four days to get back, with a splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego concluding their test flight on Friday, nine days after its Florida launch.
Wiseman and his crew spent years studying lunar geography to prepare for the big event, adding solar eclipses to their repertoire during the past few weeks. By launching last Wednesday, they ensured themselves of a total solar eclipse from their vantage point behind the moon, courtesy of the cosmos.
“The crew will make their lunar observations with real-time data analysis, guidance provided by a team of scientists and the knowledge acquired through their geology training in Labrador, Iceland and in class to describe surface textures, shapes, and colours, providing valuable data for future exploration of the moon,” reads a news release from the Canadian Space Agency.
The flyby promises views of the moon’s far side that were too dark or too difficult to see by the 24 Apollo astronauts who preceded them.
NASA said the Orientale basin, a 3.8-billion-year-old crater that formed when a large object struck the lunar surface, would be fully illuminated and visible as Orion approached.
Other sightseeing goals: the Apollo 12 and 14 landing sites from 1969 and 1971, respectively, as well as fringes of the south polar region, the preferred locale for future touchdowns.
Their moon mentor, NASA geologist Kelsey Young, expects thousands of pictures.
“People all over the world connect with the moon. This is something that every single person on this planet can understand and connect with,” she said on the eve of the flyby, wearing eclipse earrings.
Moments after breaking Apollo 13’s distance record, the Artemis II astronauts asked to name two relatively fresh lunar craters, proposing Integrity — the name of their Orion capsule — and Carroll, in honour of commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife. Wiseman wept as Canadian mission specialist Jeremy Hansen put in the request to mission control, and all four astronauts embraced.
On Tuesday, Orion will leave the lunar sphere of influence en route back to Earth.
Apollo 13’s astronauts missed out on a moon landing when one of their oxygen tanks ruptured on the way there.
The voyage coined the famous phrase, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”
Mission Control pivoted to a free-return lunar trajectory to get them home as fast and efficiently as possible. This routing relies on the gravity of Earth and the moon, and minimal fuel.
Artemis II’s astronauts are following the same figure-eight path since they are neither orbiting the moon nor landing on it.
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