{"id":586138,"date":"2026-04-05T01:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T01:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/586138\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T01:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T01:48:11","slug":"artemis-astronauts-preparing-for-historic-lunar-flyby-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/586138\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemis astronauts preparing for historic lunar flyby"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Artemis astronauts are gearing up for their long-anticipated lunar flyby, including reviewing the surface features they must analyse and photograph during their time circling the Moon.<\/p>\n

“Morale is high on board,” Commander Reid Wiseman told Houston’s Mission Control Center, as the crew’s new work day began.<\/p>\n

The next major milestone of the approximately 10-day journey is expected on day six, at which point the astronauts will enter the “lunar sphere of influence”, when the Moon’s gravity will have a stronger pull on the spacecraft than Earth’s.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A view of the Moon taken through the window of the Orion spacecraft. (Reuters: NASA)<\/p>\n

If all proceeds smoothly, as Orion whips around the Moon, the astronauts could set a record by venturing farther from Earth than any human before.<\/p>\n

The astronauts kicked off day four with a meal that included scrambled eggs and coffee, NASA said, and were woken up to the tune of Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

Commander Wiseman along with fellow Americans Christina Koch and Victor Glover as well as Canadian Jeremy Hansen are on a historic journey around the Moon, which they are soon due to slingshot around.<\/p>\n

It is a feat Commander Wiseman has dubbed “Herculean” and which humanity has not accomplished in more than half a century.<\/p>\n

Later on day four, Glover was due to take manual control of the spacecraft to test its performance in deep space.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

NASA astronaut Christina Koch is illuminated by a screen inside the darkened Orion spacecraft. (Reuters: NASA)<\/p>\n

After that, the crew was planning to go over their checklist for documenting their experience travelling around the Moon.<\/p>\n

The astronauts have had geology training in order to be able to photograph and describe lunar features, including ancient lava flows and impact craters.<\/p>\n

This moon mission is different. They have toilets now<\/a><\/p>\n

Over 50 years ago, the Apollo missions took humanity to the Moon. Now with Artemis, a new generation is about to be launched. What has changed \u2014 and not changed \u2014 between then and now might surprise you.<\/p>\n

They will see the Moon from a unique vantage point compared with the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s.<\/p>\n

Apollo flights flew some 70 miles above the lunar surface, but the Artemis 2 crew will be just over 4,000 miles at their closest approach, which will allow them to see the complete, circular surface of the Moon, including regions near both poles.<\/p>\n

On the downside, their toilet has been on the blink again.<\/p>\n

The Orion capsule’s bathroom malfunctioned following lift-off and has been hit-and-miss ever since.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

The Artemis II astronauts, from left, Reid Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch and Victor Glover gather for an interview. (AP: NASA)<\/p>\n

Engineers suspect ice may be blocking the line that is preventing urine from completely flushing overboard.<\/p>\n

Until the issue is fixed, NASA has instructed the astronauts to break out more of the backup urine collection bags.<\/p>\n

Commander Reid has also told mission control that morale was high and views of the Earth were “remarkable”.<\/p>\n

And he noted the days were blurring together for the astronauts.<\/p>\n

“We heard a rumour up here that it is actually Saturday back on Earth,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We have definitely lost track of the days.”<\/p>\n

AFP\/AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Artemis astronauts are gearing up for their long-anticipated lunar flyby, including reviewing the surface features they must…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[3105,64,63,134,216874,286877,131,108940,427,51322],"class_list":{"0":"post-586138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-artemis","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-jeremy-hansen","13":"tag-lunar-flyby","14":"tag-nasa","15":"tag-reid-wiseman","16":"tag-tv","17":"tag-victor-glover"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}