Artemis II astronauts swung by the moon, broke an Apollo record, and saw an eclipse : NPR

Artemis II commander and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman looks out one of the Orion spacecraft’s main cabin windows at the moon ahead of the crew’s lunar flyby. After successfully looping around the moon, the space capsule is now headed back toward Earth.

NASA

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NASA

The four-astronaut crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission is now on its way back to Earth after a record-breaking trip around the moon, traveling farther than any other humans have before.

As the Orion capsule whipped around the back side of the moon Monday, Earth was out of sight — and the crew was unable to communicate to Mission Control for about 40 minutes due to the moon blocking a connection to the Deep Space Network.

“And to all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you, from the Moon,” radioed mission specialist Christina Koch ahead of the radio blackout. “We will see you on the other side.”

During the blackout, according to NASA, the capsule reached its closest approach to the moon at about 4,067 miles above the lunar surface. Just minutes later, the crew reached the mission’s maximum distance from Earth at 252,756 miles, beating the previous record set by the Apollo 13 mission in 1970 by 4,111 more miles.

“We will explore, we will build, we will build ships. We will visit again,” said Koch as the spacecraft reestablished communication, beginning its journey back to Earth.

“We will construct science outposts. We will drive rovers. We will do radio astronomy. We will found companies. We will bolster industry. We will inspire, but ultimately, we will always choose Earth. We will always choose each other,” she said.

Orion and its crew now begin the nearly quarter-million-mile journey back to Earth with new knowledge of the lunar surface and key test flight data from the Orion spacecraft to aid future missions that will take humans to the surface of the moon as early as 2028.

New lunar data

During the mission’s loop around the moon, the crew took geological observations of around 35 places of interest on the lunar surface using their own eyes and snapping thousands of photos of the surface.

Orion’s high altitude above the far side of the moon gave the crew a never-before-seen view. Working in teams of two, the astronauts observed these features and spoke to scientists in real time back at Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston about what they were seeing — like changes in color on the lunar surface.

These color changes can help scientists understand the composition of minerals on the surface, according to NASA, because while there is plenty of satellite imagery of the moon, the human eye is better at spotting the changes of color.

“The plateau is hard for me to see from this window, but that had green issues to me and was very unique,” said mission specialist Jeremy Hansen in a conversation with NASA’s lunar scientists. “I didn’t see anything like that anywhere else on this side of the moon. And then I see a lot of these, what I would call brownish hue areas.”

Their observations will help scientists better understand the moon’s composition and help plan for future robotic landings on the far side.

The flight trajectory took the spacecraft through a solar eclipse — when a mostly darkened moon transited in front of the sun. The roughly hourlong phenomenon gave the crew the chance to study the solar corona as it peeked around the edge of the moon.

“This continues to be unreal,” said mission pilot Victor Glover, relaying his observations to Mission Control. “It is quite an impressive sight.”

The astronauts will share more of their science data and observations with science officials during an in-flight meeting Tuesday.

The crew also took the flyby opportunity to dedicate an unnamed crater to commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife, who died from cancer in 2020.

“We lost a loved one, her name was Carroll. It’s a bright spot on the moon. And we would like to call that Carroll,” said Hansen.

Returning home

Artemis II is a test flight of the Orion spacecraft, and the crew will continue to perform flight tests on the vehicle as it makes the trip home. That includes the deployment of a radiation shield and once again testing the maneuverability of the spacecraft during manual flight.

But one of the most critical tests will come during reentry Friday, as the Orion space capsule punches through Earth’s atmosphere at 25,000 miles per hour, enduring temperatures of up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

The crew and the spacecraft will be protected by a heat shield beneath their capsule that was designed to protect the astronauts for this dynamic event. A series of parachutes will slow Orion down to just under 20 miles per hour as it gently splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego. Airbags will deploy to make sure the crew is right side up.

Personnel from NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense will assist the crew out of the capsule and take them to a recovery ship, ending the nearly 10-day mission to the moon and back.