The four astronauts of NASA's "Artemis II" mission entered the moon's gravitational sphere of influence early this morning as they navigate a trajectory that will soon take them across the dark, far side of the moon. In doing so, they will become the furthest humans in history to travel into space, "Reuters" reported.
The "Artemis II" crew, flying in the "Orion" capsule since launching from Florida last week, is scheduled to wake up around 10:50 a.m. Eastern time today for its sixth day of flight. By 7:05 p.m., they will reach the mission's maximum distance from Earth of approximately 252,757 miles, 4,102 miles beyond the record held by the Apollo 13 crew for 56 years.
As NASA astronauts Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, approach the record distance, they will fly past the far side of the moon and observe from approximately 4,000 miles away its dark surface as it eclipses the basketball-sized Earth in the background.
This milestone is the culmination of the nearly 10-day Artemis II mission - the first manned test flight of NASA's Artemis program. The multibillion-dollar series of missions aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface by 2028, ahead of China, and establish a long-term U.S. presence there over the next decade by building a lunar base that will serve as a testing ground for potential future missions to Mars.
Officially kicking off at 2:34 p.m. Eastern Time, the flyby will plunge the crew into darkness and experience brief communications blackouts as the moon blocks them from NASA's Deep Space Network, a global network of massive radio communications antennas that the agency uses to communicate with the crew.
The flyby will last about six hours, during which astronauts will use professional cameras to take detailed images through the Orion's porthole. of the Moon's silhouette - a rare and scientifically valuable view of sunlight filtering in around its edges in what will effectively be a lunar eclipse.
They will also have the opportunity to capture a rare moment when their home planet, shadowed by their record-breaking distance into space, rises from the lunar horizon as their capsule emerges on the other side.
A team of dozens of lunar scientists stationed in the Science Assessment Room at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will take notes as the astronauts, who have studied a range of lunar phenomena as part of their training for the mission, describe their perspective in real time.