NASA’s four Artemis II astronauts are homeward bound after successfully completing a lunar flyby that saw them travel deeper into space than any other humans.
Known as a free-return lunar trajectory, this no-stopping-to-land route takes advantage of Earth and the moon’s gravity, reducing the need for fuel. It’s a celestial figure-eight that put the astronauts on course for home once they emerged from behind the moon Monday evening.
NASA’s mission control in Houston regained contact with the crew after they temporarily lost signal for some 40 minutes, as their spacecraft passed behind Earth’s natural satellite.
The temporary loss of communication was expected as the Artemis II spacecraft passed out of Earth’s direct line of sight behind the far side of the moon.
“It is so great to hear from Earth again,” said astronaut Christina Koch, as the crewmembers were once again able to speak with humans on their home planet.
“We will always choose Earth, we will always choose each other.”
After regaining contact with mission control, they also observed a total solar eclipse, with the Moon briefly blocking the Sun from the crew’s view, revealing the star’s pale outer atmosphere.
“We just went sci-fi. It just looks unreal,” pilot Victor Glover said as the astronauts witnessed the eclipse.
Earlier the Artemis II team broke the distance record set by the 1970 Apollo 13 mission, which they were expected to surpass by 6,606 kilometres when they reached the journey’s anticipated furthest distance from Earth: 406,778 kilometres.
US President Donald Trump called and congratulated the Artemis astronauts circling the Moon for making “history,” telling them they’ve “made all America really proud, incredibly proud.”
“You really are modern-day pioneers, all of you,” Trump said, before launching into a friendly interview.
“You’ve got a lot of courage doing what you’re doing,” Trump said, lavishing praise on NASA’s first lunar flyby in more than 50 years.
Lunar observations
Atronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen spent hours sending back detailed observations of the Moon as they passed around it.
“It is blowing my mind what you can see with the naked eye from the moon right now. It is just unbelievable,” Canadian astronaut Hansen radioed. He challenged “this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived.”
The more than six-hour task of observing and documenting the lunar surface brought human perspective to features of the Moon that we primarily know through photographs taken by robots.
Victor Glover detailed the “terminator”, the Moon’s boundary between night and day. “Wow, I wish I had some more time to just sit here and describe what I’m seeing,” he said, before creating a vivid portrait for the scientists listening in from Earth.
“But the terminator right now is just fantastic. It is the most rugged that I’ve seen it from a lighting perspective.”
Kelsey Young, the lead scientist for the Artemis II mission, responded with elation. “Oh my gosh, that was an amazing picture you just painted,” she said.
“Those types of observations are things that humans are uniquely able to contribute, and you just really brought us along with you.”
Fellow astronaut Christina Koch meanwhile offered a colourful rendering of lunar craters.
“What it really looks like is like a lampshade with tiny pinprick holes and the light shining through,” she said. “They are so bright compared to the rest of the Moon.”
Before getting started, they requested permission to name two bright, freshly carved craters. They suggested Integrity, the name of their capsule, and Carroll, commander Wiseman’s 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.
Artemis II is NASA’s first astronaut moonshot since Apollo 17 in 1972. It sets the stage for next year’s Artemis III, which will see another Orion crew practice docking with lunar landers in orbit around Earth. The culminating moon landing by two astronauts near the moon’s south pole will follow on Artemis IV in 2028.