{"id":589188,"date":"2026-04-06T13:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T13:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/589188\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T13:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T13:39:08","slug":"artemis-ii-astronauts-on-course-to-set-new-distance-record-during-moon-flyby-artemis-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/589188\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemis II astronauts on course to set new distance record during moon flyby | Artemis II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Artemis II<\/a> astronauts are on course to set a new distance record Monday when they fly by the moon without stopping there \u2013 and then swing around for planet Earth.<\/p>\n

The four astronauts \u2013 Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of the US space agency Nasa; and Canadian Space<\/a> Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen \u2013 will become Earth\u2019s farthest travelled, going 5,000 miles (8,047km) beyond the moon, exceeding the distance record set by 1970\u2019s ill-fated Apollo 13.<\/p>\n

Astronauts on that trip \u2013 commander Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert \u2013 reached a maximum 248,655 miles (400,171km) from Earth before making their turn. Artemis\u2019s crew should exceed Apollo 13\u2019s mission by about 4,000 miles (6,437km).<\/p>\n

On what is the sixth day of a lunar mission that has re-invigorated Nasa\u2019s space exploration program<\/a>, the Orion capsule\u2019s roughly six-hour flyby on Monday promises views of the moon\u2019s far side that were too dark or too difficult to see by the Apollo program astronauts who preceded them more than half a century ago.<\/p>\n

A total solar eclipse also awaits them as the moon blocks the sun, exposing snippets of shimmering corona. \u201cWe\u2019ll get eyes on the moon, kind of map it out and then continue to go back in force,\u201d flight director Judd Frieling said.<\/p>\n

Koch recently said that she and her Artemis II<\/a> crewmates don\u2019t live on superlatives, but it\u2019s an important milestone \u201cthat people can understand and wrap their heads around\u201d, merging the past with the present \u2013 and even the future when new records are set.<\/p>\n

Orion will be out of contact with mission control for 40 minutes when it\u2019s behind the moon. Nasa<\/a> is relying on its Deep Space Network to communicate with the crew, but the giant antennas in California, Spain and Australia won\u2019t have a direct line of sight.<\/p>\n

These communication blackouts were always a tense time during the Apollo missions although, as Frieling points out, \u201cphysics takes over \u2013 and physics will absolutely get us back to the front side of the moon\u201d.<\/p>\n

During the flyby, the astronauts will take turns capturing the lunar views out their windows and will be able make out \u201cdefinite chunks of the far side that have never been seen\u201d by humans, according to Kelsey Young, Nasa\u2019s Artemis II lunar science geologist.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, she said: \u201cI\u2019m really, really looking forward to them bringing the moon a little closer to home on Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jared Isaacman, Nasa\u2019s administrator, told CBS News\u2019s Face the Nation on Sunday that the Artemis II astronauts \u201cabsolutely have observation responsibilities\u201d during the flyby.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a series of different cameras \u2013 they\u2019re going to get data from that,\u201d he said, adding that it will help future missions, including one aimed at returning to the lunar surface. \u201cThey\u2019ve actually had an opportunity for three and a half years to train for this mission, to work with our scientists on the information they would like to gather most about the far side of the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the capsule rounds the moon, it will take four days to return to Earth. Nasa is aiming for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego on 10 April, nine days after its Florida launch.<\/p>\n

Young said the Artemis II crew will survey potential landing zones for future missions, including the mysterious Reiner Gamma formation \u2013 a bright lunar swirl associated with a localized magnetic anomaly \u2013 and photograph Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn at sunrise and sunset.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, they will attempt to recreate the Earthrise<\/a> image, which was taken from lunar orbit by astronaut William Anders on 24 December 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission \u2013 and is credited with inspiring the environmental movement. There are hopes that the new photo can have the same unifying effect that the original did.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, a CBS News reporter asked mission pilot Glover if he wished to share any thoughts on Easter.<\/p>\n

Glover replied, in part: \u201cIn all of this emptiness \u2013 this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe \u2013 you have this oasis, this beautiful place [on Earth] that we get to exist together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you believe in God or not, this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that we are the same thing, and that we\u2019ve gotta get through this together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Artemis II astronauts are on course to set a new distance record Monday when they fly by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-589188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589188","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=589188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}