As the Artemis II mission performed its lunar flyby it came within just 4,067 miles on the far side of the moon.
With the crew in the Orion capsule reached an estimated 252,756 miles from Earth, it broke# Apollo 13’s record for the farthest humans have travelled into space. The flyby lasted seven hours, during which the astronauts could enjoy views of the lunar surface previously unseen by human eyes, with about 21% of the moon’s mysterious far side illuminated by the sun from the crew’s perspective.
Working in two shifts across roughly five hours, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen were said to have taken thousands of photos. And there was a short period of time when (for approximately 40 minutes) communications came to a stop - as Orion transited behind the moon.
The crewmembers saw ‘Earthset’ or Earth appear to set behind the moon - similar to what the Apollo astronauts witnessed in 1968. In the flyby, the astronauts were treated to a very special solar eclipse. To them, the moon appeared much larger through the windows of Orion than it does on Earth.
As parts of the sun’s outer atmosphere appeared visible, including structures called streamers described as “baby hairs,” the moon blocked the sun from view, during the eclipse, with the astronauts also able to see planets like Mars, Venus and Saturn. After the flyby, Commander Reid Wiseman thanked the NASA science team for putting the programme together, saying: “We appreciate all of you, and this is what we do best when we all come together and work as a team.
“So y’all knocked it out of the park. Thank you for giving us this opportunity.”
Science officer Dr. Kelsey Young went on to express her gratitude with the crew, as she said: “I can’t say enough how much science we’ve already learned and how much inspiration you’ve provided to our entire team, the lunar science community and the entire world with what you were able to bring.
“You really brought the moon closer for us today and we cannot say thank you enough for that.” The photos will help inform scientists’ understanding of the moon and its origins — and lay the groundwork for future missions to the lunar surface.
“You know from your experience of seeing the Earth from space how it just seems different,” said Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, while speaking to NASA about the flyby.
“When we were on the far side of the moon, looking back at Earth, you really felt like you weren’t in a capsule. You’d been transported to the far side of the moon and it really was an extraordinary human experience.
NASA’s Artemis programme was sending humans into deep space for the first time in more than five decades.
