NASA’s four-member Artemis II crew is on the homeward leg after completing a record-setting circuit around the far side of the Moon, reaching farther from Earth than any humans in history.
As the Orion capsule passed over the lunar far side, the Moon blocked communications with Earth for roughly 40 minutes, interrupting contact with Mission Control and the Deep Space Network. Before the blackout, mission specialist Christina Koch sent a farewell to people on Earth. During the communications gap the spacecraft made its closest approach to the lunar surface, about 4,067 miles above it, and then reached the mission’s maximum distance from Earth: 252,756 miles. That distance exceeds the Apollo 13 high-water mark from 1970 by about 4,111 miles.
When telemetry and voice communications resumed, the crew discussed future exploration goals and priorities, emphasizing plans to return to the Moon, build infrastructure, deploy rovers, and use lunar science to inspire industry and collaboration on Earth.
While looping the Moon, the astronauts conducted scientific observations of roughly 35 sites of interest and took thousands of photographs. Working in pairs, they relayed real-time visual descriptions to lunar scientists at Johnson Space Center, noting subtle color variations and surface textures that can indicate mineral differences. Although orbital satellites already provide detailed imagery, NASA officials say human observers can detect faint color shifts and other details that help refine geological interpretations. Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen described areas with distinctive greenish and brownish hues that stood out from other terrain on the far side.
Those crew observations will assist scientists in improving models of lunar composition and in selecting targets for future robotic and crewed landings on the Moon’s far side.
The flight path also took Orion through a solar eclipse as the darkened lunar disk passed in front of the Sun. The roughly hourlong event let the crew study the Sun’s corona peeking around the lunar limb, an opportunity pilot Victor Glover called an impressive and otherworldly sight. The astronauts are scheduled to brief science teams in a planned in-flight meeting to share more detailed data and insights from their observations.
In a personal moment during the flyby, the crew dedicated an unnamed lunar crater in memory of commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll, who died of cancer in 2020. The crew said they would like the feature to be known as Carroll.
Artemis II remains a test flight for the Orion spacecraft as it returns to Earth. The crew will continue inflight testing, including deploying a radiation shield and exercising manual maneuvering controls. A critical phase comes at atmospheric reentry, when Orion is expected to strike Earth’s atmosphere at about 25,000 miles per hour and encounter peak heating near 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. A robust heat shield under the capsule is designed to protect the crew during that extreme heating.
Parachutes will then slow Orion to roughly 20 miles per hour for a planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego. Airbags will help ensure the capsule lands right-side up. Recovery teams from NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense will assist the astronauts out of the capsule and transfer them to a recovery ship, concluding the nearly 10-day mission that provides new lunar science and critical test data for missions that aim to land humans on the Moon as soon as the late 2020s.