Images: NASA
Artemis II is NASA’s ongoing crewed space mission that has sent four astronauts on a fly-by around the Moon for the first time since 1972.
Timeline
The 10-day-long mission includes a lunar fly-by on April 6 and concludes with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean around April 10, 2026.
Crew
On board the Orion aircraft are four astronauts: commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and two mission specialists, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.
Fly-by
The mission included a seven hour long fly-by around the moon, during which the spaceship reached the closest approximate distance of 4,070 miles (or 6,550 km) from the lunar surface.
Blackout
The fly-by included a 40-minute planned communication blackout–the longest in history–as the Orion spacecraft passed behind the Moon.
Earthrise
During the blackout, the astronauts saw the features of the lunar far side that had never been seen before with human eyes, and observed ‘Earthset’ and ‘Earthrise’.
History made
Artemis-II made history, setting a new record for the farthest distance humans have travelled from Earth at around 252,756 miles (or 406,778 km), about 4,105 miles (6,606 km) farther than Apollo 13.
Celestial spectacle
The astronauts also witnessed a 53-minute long total solar eclipse from just a few thousand miles above the moon. They observed the solar corona, the Sun's outermost atmosphere.
Following its record-breaking fly-by, the Artemis-II spacecraft is currently on its return journey, with a splashdown scheduled for April 10, 2026.
Thanks for reading!
See next