Artemis crew reaches moon, nears record distance from Earth

Humanity’s next chapter in deep space is edging into view as the four astronauts of NASA’s Artemis II mission cross into the Moon’s gravitational sphere of influence, riding a trajectory that will soon carry them above the shadowed lunar far side and place them farther from Earth than any people have ever travelled.

The Artemis II crew, aboard their Orion capsule since lifting off from Florida last week, are expected to wake at about 10.50am ET (3.05pm Irish time) for the mission’s sixth day in flight.

At 7:05pm ET (12.05am Irish time), they are set to reach the mission’s greatest distance from Earth — about 406,772km — surpassing the mark set by the Apollo 13 crew 56 years ago by 6,601km miles.

As NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, close in on that long-standing record, they will be sweeping around the Moon’s far ‌side, viewing it from roughly 6,437km ⁠above its darkened surface while it blots out a basketball-sized Earth in the far-off background.

Orion lined up directly with the Moon earlier in the Artemis II mission (Photo: NASA)

The multi billion-dollar campaign is designed to put astronauts back on the Moon by 2028 ahead of China and to begin building a sustained US presence there over the ‌next decade, with a moon base intended to help prepare for eventual crewed missions to Mars.

Beginning officially at 2.34pm ET (7.34pm Irish time), the lunar ⁠fly by will carry the crew into darkness and periods of brief communications blackout as the Moon cuts them off from ‌NASA’s Deep Space Network, the worldwide system of giant radio antennas the agency ⁠has relied on ‌to stay in contact with the astronauts.

The flyby is expected to last about six hours. During that time, the astronauts will use professional cameras to capture detailed images through Orion’s window of the silhouetted Moon, offering a rare and scientifically valuable perspective of sunlight bending around its ⁠edges in what will amount to a lunar eclipse.

They are also expected to get the opportunity to photograph a ⁠rare scene in which the Earth, diminished by their record-setting distance in space, rises above the lunar horizon as the capsule comes out on the far side — a striking reversal of the moon rise seen from Earth.

At NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, dozens of lunar scientists gathered in the Science Evaluation Room will be taking notes as the astronauts — who studied a range of lunar phenomena as ‌part of mission training — describe what they are seeing in real time.

Systems tests

NASA said the Artemis crew has already carried out a manual piloting demonstration and gone over the lunar flyby plan, including reviewing the surface features they are expected to analyse and photograph while circling the Moon.

At the same time, “we’re focusing very much on the ecosystem, the life support system of the spacecraft,” NASA chief Jared Isaacman said in a televised interview with CNN.

“This is the first time astronauts have ever flown on this spacecraft before. That’s what we’re most interested in getting data from,” he added.

On day five, the astronauts were testing their “survival” suits, according to NASA.

The bright orange suits are used during take-off and re-entry, and in emergency scenarios such as cabin depressurization.

Watch: Artemis astronauts on space dining

The crew “will conduct a full sequence of suit operations, including putting on and pressurising their suits, performing leak checks, simulating seat entry, and assessing mobility and their ability to eat and drink,” NASA said.

The information will be “pretty paramount to set up for subsequent missions like Artemis 3 in 2027 and, of course, the lunar landing itself on Artemis 4 in 2028.”

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