{"id":591073,"date":"2026-04-07T10:59:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T10:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/591073\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T10:59:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T10:59:18","slug":"artemis-ii-mission-makes-contact-again-as-spacecraft-goes-around-moon-as-it-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/591073\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemis II mission makes contact again as spacecraft goes around Moon \u2014 as it happened"},"content":{"rendered":"

8h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 2:18amWhat you need to know about the Artemis II mission\"Annabel<\/p>\n

On\u00a0day six of the Artemis II mission, the four astronauts onboard the Orion spacecraft completed a six-hour fly-by of the Moon.<\/p>\n

Here’s a recap of the mission so far:<\/p>\n

Artemis II \u2014 humanity’s first journey toward the Moon since 1972 \u2014\u00a0launched on April 2\u00a0(Australia time)\u00a0from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.The crew includes three Americans \u2014 commander\u00a0Reid Wiseman, pilot\u00a0Victor Glover\u00a0and mission specialist\u00a0Christina Koch\u00a0\u2014 along with Canadian mission specialist\u00a0Jeremy Hansen.At\u00a03:56am AEST Tuesday, the crew\u00a0travelled farther from Earth than any humans before, surpassing the previous record of 400,171 kilometres set by the Apollo 13 crew in 1970.In an emotional moment, the crew decided to\u00a0name a Moon crater after Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll, to mark the milestone.The Artemis II crew\u00a0will not land on the Moon\u00a0during the mission, though they’re putting the Orion spacecraft through its paces to prepare for\u00a0a potential lunar landing by 2028.After looping around the Moon, it will take the astronauts four days to return home, with splashdown expected in the\u00a0Pacific Ocean\u00a0near San Diego on\u00a0April 11 (Australia time).<\/p>\n

6h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 4:35am<\/p>\n

Thanks for being with us\"Annabel<\/p>\n

Thanks for joining our live coverage today to witness history being made \u2014 as Artemis II took humans farther from Earth than ever before.<\/p>\n

With the crew wrapping up their fly-by of the Moon earlier, we’ll end our live updates here.<\/p>\n

But we’ll continue to follow their four-day mission home closely.<\/p>\n

You can keep up-to-date at abc.net.au\/news, or listen to our daily podcast Artemis Explained<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the series, science journalists\u00a0Belinda Smith\u00a0and\u00a0Jacinta Bowler\u00a0provide daily updates and answer your questions about life as an astronaut, the science of spaceflight, and plans to venture beyond the Moon.<\/p>\n

6h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 4:25am<\/p>\n

When will we see more images from the Artemis II crew?\"Annabel<\/p>\n

I would imagine that the spacecraft and astronauts are taking thousands of pictures of the Earth. So why is only one image being published for the public view?<\/p>\n

– Alice<\/p>\n

Hi Alice,<\/p>\n

As my colleague Audrey shared early this morning, the\u00a0Orion spacecraft is carrying 32 cameras and devices<\/a> to capture the Moon from every angle, both inside and outside.<\/p>\n

Some photos have already been uploaded to\u00a0NASA’s photostream on flickr,<\/a> but\u00a0not all the images can be sent back to Earth immediately.<\/p>\n

Much more will be released after splashdown, once the data has been processed.<\/p>\n

Here are some new images taken on day five of the mission, but only sent back to Earth today.<\/p>\n

The second image of the crew’s sleeping bags was even shot on an iPhone!<\/p>\n

\"AMission specialist Jeremy Hansen enjoys a shave inside the Orion spacecraft\u00a0 (Source: NASA)\"ArtemisArtemis II crewmember sleeping bags are illuminated inside the Orion spacecraft. (Source: NASA)<\/p>\n

6h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 4:15am<\/p>\n

Space crew to leverage Moon’s gravity for another 13 hours\"Annabel<\/p>\n

As we reported earlier this morning, the Orion capsule is in the\u00a0“lunar sphere of influence”, meaning the Moon’s gravity pulls more strongly on the spacecraft than Earth’s.<\/p>\n

This allows the spacecraft to leverage the Moon’s gravity to swing the spacecraft back toward Earth in a strategic loop.<\/p>\n

They are scheduled to remain in this sphere of influence until about 12.25pm Tuesday, Central Time in the states.<\/p>\n

That’s a bit more than 13 hours from now.<\/p>\n

6h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 4:07amThe Artemis II playlist\"Audrey<\/p>\n

Over the past six days, the Artemis II crew has woken up to a curated playlist of modern hits and classics.<\/p>\n

According to NASA, these are the tracks that have echoed through the Orion capsule so far:<\/p>\n

Sleepyhead by Young & SickGreen Light by John Legend ft. Andr\u00e9 3000
In a Daydream by Freddy Jones BandPink Pony Club\u00a0by Chappell RoanWorking Class Heroes by CeeLo Green<\/p>\n

The practice of playing music to wake up astronauts isn’t new. It dates back to the Gemini missions in the mid-1960s.<\/p>\n

The very first wake-up song played for Gemini astronauts was the show tune Hello, Dolly! in 1965.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Initially, mission control used the songs as a way to signal the start of a scheduled workday in the silence of space. Today, the tradition is more personal.<\/p>\n

The tracks are typically chosen by mission control or requested by the friends and family of the crew to boost morale during long-duration flights.<\/p>\n

7h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 3:55amMeet Rise, the crew’s adorable zero-gravity indicator\"Audrey\"\"Rise is a zero-gravity indicator on the Orion spacecraft. (Reuters: Joe Skipper)<\/p>\n

A zero-gravity indicator is a small plush item that typically rides with a crew to visually indicate when they have entered the weightless part of their flight.<\/p>\n

Eight-year-old Lucas Ye from Mountain View, California,\u00a0designed the stuffed toy that has been floating around the Orion spacecraft over the past week.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rise was designed by 8-year-old Lucas Ye. (Source: NASA TV)<\/p>\n

The crew selected his creation, named Rise, out of more than 2,600 submissions from over 50 countries, including K-12 students.<\/p>\n

The round, smiling moon wearing a baseball cap shows half of Earth’s surface. It is a nod to to the iconic Earthrise photograph taken on the Apollo 8 mission in 1968.<\/p>\n

7h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 3:46am<\/p>\n

Commander Wiseman says humans have ‘got to explore further’\"Annabel<\/p>\n

Commander Reid Wiseman says the scale of the mission has “blown his mind”.<\/p>\n

“Every time mission control points this vehicle either at the Moon or Earth, it reminds me every day that humans have got to explore further to expand our knowledge to expand our horizons,” he says.<\/p>\n

“Every time we take another step forward it makes the world seem a little bit smaller and a little bit more manageable.”<\/p>\n

He says NASA is doing this and “doing it very well”.<\/p>\n

7h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 3:37am<\/p>\n

Astronaut Christina Koch says mission has been fun\"Annabel<\/p>\n

Mission specialist\u00a0Christina Koch has talked about how she and other mission specialist, Jeremy Hansen, drove the spacecraft for a period yesterday with its rotational hand controller.<\/p>\n

“How well it handled, how tight the control algorithms were [was amazing] and watching it respond when we actually degraded it on purpose by going into three degrees of freedom control, by actually inhibiting some of the jets,” she says.<\/p>\n

“It was just amazing to be in a deep-space spacecraft and just be flying it around by hand.”<\/p>\n

She also says she can’t believe how fast the mission has gone by.<\/p>\n

“I’m not ready to go home,” she says.<\/p>\n

“I can’t believe that something this cramped of quarters can still fly by and be fun every single minute.”<\/p>\n

7h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 3:25am<\/p>\n

Pilot Glover talks about the ‘power required’ to get to where they are\"Annabel<\/p>\n

Pilot Victor Glover has taken the floating mic, talking about the crew’s launch from Earth six days ago.<\/p>\n

“We had an amazing launch, the SOS is quite a powerful rocket … got us into a 1200 by eventually a 100-mile orbit,” he says.<\/p>\n

“Clearly powered speed, we did our trans-lunar injection and we were going quite fast.<\/p>\n

“With all of that speed though it still took us days to get here and so the scope [of all of that] to a 321-foot-tall rocket was amazing.<\/p>\n

“It just puts the power required to do this into perspective.”<\/p>\n

7h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 3:12am<\/p>\n

Space crew describe seeing ‘three-dimensionality’ of Earth\"Annabel<\/p>\n

The Artemis II crew are now doing a Q&A and they’ve been asked about what’s surprised them so far, after years spent preparing for the mission.<\/p>\n

Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen answers, saying what shocked him most was seeing “the three-dimensionality” of Earth from space.<\/p>\n

“When we were on the far side of the Moon, looking back at Earth … you really felt like you weren’t in a capsule, you’d been transported,” he says.<\/p>\n

“It really just bent your mind. It was an extraordinary human experience. I’m so grateful for it.”<\/p>\n

8h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 2:57amArtemis II crew makes contact with US President Donald Trump\"Annabel<\/p>\n

The Artemis II crew have just held a video call with NASA command back on Earth, where they’ve been put in touch with US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

“Today you’ve made history and made all of America really proud, incredibly proud,” Trump says.<\/p>\n

“There’s nothing like what you’re doing, circling around the Moon for the first time in more than half a century, breaking the all-time record for the farthest distance from planet Earth.<\/p>\n

“Your mission paves the way for America’s return to the lunar surface very soon.<\/p>\n

“It’s an honour to speak to you and I want to congratulate each and every one of you.”<\/p>\n

\"The(Source: NASA)<\/p>\n

In response to the president’s question about the most spectacular sight they’d seen on the fly-by today, mission commander Reid Wiseman described seeing the Moon “from a different perspective” to what can be seen from Earth.<\/p>\n

“We saw sights \u2026 that no human has ever seen before, not even Apollo,” he says.<\/p>\n

“That was amazing for us.<\/p>\n

“Then the surprise of the day \u2014 we just came out of an eclipse … the entire dark Moon, right out the window. We could see the corona of the Sun and we could see the planet train line.<\/p>\n

“All of us commented how excited we are to watch this nation and this planet become a two-planet species.”<\/p>\n

8h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 2:40am<\/p>\n

Why do we always see the same side of the Moon?\"Jacinta<\/p>\n

Wait\u2026 the moon doesn\u2019t orbit?<\/p>\n

– Mindblown<\/p>\n

Hey Mindblown!<\/p>\n

Yes, the Moon does orbit around the Earth, but it is tidally locked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This means that we always see the same face when we look at the Moon from Earth. <\/p>\n

This is why we call it the “far side” or colloquially the “dark side” of the Moon. <\/p>\n

But dark side is not quite correct, because when the Moon is dark from Earth, the dark side is being lit up by the Sun. <\/p>\n

We are currently in the “waning gibbous” lunar phase, which means some of the far side is lit up, and the astronauts are able to study it.<\/p>\n

Artemis II’s historic fly-by of the Moon this morning has captured never-before-seen views of its far side.<\/p>\n

8h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 2:29am<\/p>\n

The latest photo of the Moon shows ancient lava flows\"Annabel<\/p>\n

Here’s the latest photo of the Moon sent home from the Artemis II mission.<\/p>\n

In this view of the Moon, the near side (the hemisphere we see from Earth), is visible at the top half of the Moon disk \u2014 identifiable by the dark splotches.<\/p>\n

NASA tells us these are ancient lava flows from a time early in the Moon\u2019s history when it was volcanically active.<\/p>\n

\"A(Source: NASA)<\/p>\n

The large crater that appears below the lava flows, dark in the centre, is Orientale basin, a nearly 965-kilometre-wide crater that straddles the Moon’s near and far sides.<\/p>\n

The crater is partly visible from Earth on the edge of the Moon, but in this image, we have a full view.<\/p>\n

Everything below the crater is the far side \u2014\u00a0the hemisphere we don’t get to see from Earth because the Moon rotates on its axis at the same rate that it orbits round us.<\/p>\n

8h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 2:10am<\/p>\n

What’s next after the fly-by of the Moon?\"Annabel<\/p>\n

For the past seven hours or so the crew members have been on their lunar fly-by of the Moon.<\/p>\n

They’re now starting to wrap up that period and complete some final tasks, NASA’s official broadcast tells us, and will\u00a0begin processing some of the amazing imagery they’ve captured throughout the day.<\/p>\n

Then after the crew get some sleep in, there will be a post fly-by conference.<\/p>\n

“That’s not a debrief but a science data collection to capture their nuanced experience while they’re still in the field and the experience is still fresh,” Anna Schneider from NASA communications says.<\/p>\n

Here’s a visualisation of the spacecraft’s current position, more than 403,000 kilometres from Earth and 13,000 kilometres from the Moon.<\/p>\n

\"A(Source: NASA)<\/p>\n

From here it’s a four-day journey home for the Orion capsule, which is scheduled to splashdown in the\u00a0Pacific Ocean near San Diego on\u00a0April 10\u00a0\u2014 nine days after its Florida launch.<\/p>\n

8h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 2:04am<\/p>\n

How Australia has been part of today’s fly-by\"Jacinta<\/p>\n

The astronauts today have been communicating back to Earth via the Deep Space Network, which is a collection of radio telescopes in California, Spain and our very own in Canberra. <\/p>\n

The Canberra part of the network, which is known as the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex has been receiving the feed of the astronauts for part of the morning. <\/p>\n

But the Madrid part of the network will be capturing the final section\u00a0\u2014\u00a0during the eclipse.<\/p>\n

You can find out more about the facility below:<\/p>\n

9h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 1:43am’Absolutely spectacular’: Solar eclipse comes to an end\"Annabel<\/p>\n

We’ve just witnessed the solar eclipse coming to an end, showing a stunning bright Sun emerge from behind the Moon.<\/p>\n

The screenshots below are taken from footage shot by the solar array wing cameras on the Orion spacecraft.<\/p>\n

\"A(Source: NASA)<\/p>\n

“We want to remind you at this point of the eclipse glasses \u2014 should be about time for those,” the crew are told from mission control.<\/p>\n

\"A(Source: NASA)<\/p>\n

“That was an absolutely spectacular, magnificent experience,” one astronaut says.<\/p>\n

“Thanks for the report \u2014 we sure wish we we’re there with ya,” mission control responds.<\/p>\n

9h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 1:23am<\/p>\n

Space crew tells of seeing impact flashes on the Moon\"Annabel<\/p>\n

We’ve heard some more from the crew as they navigate around the Moon during the total solar eclipse.<\/p>\n

“The glow around the Moon is beginning to become a little bit more even. It’s not so much distinct, just where the Sun’s set on the moon’s horizon,” one astronaut says.<\/p>\n

“We’re starting to see the glow around the Moon balance out.<\/p>\n

“I still see Earthshine and the Earth is very bright out there<\/p>\n

“It’s quite an unreal sight.”<\/p>\n

The crew also talked about seeing impact flashes on the Moon \u2014 an event that prompted those in the NASA command back on Earth to jump up and down in excitement.<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen three impact flashes so far,” one of the crew members says, before correcting that to four flashes seen.<\/p>\n

“They’ve all been either on or a bit south of the equator and on the Earth-side of the Moon.”<\/p>\n

Impact flashes can be seen when space rocks\u00a0\u2014 from the size of grains of sand to others as big as boulders \u2014\u00a0hit the Moon.<\/p>\n

Most of the energy from these crashes goes into making the craters<\/a> we see on the Moon\u2019s surface, but a tiny amount of that energy (less than 1 per cent) turns into a brief flash of light.<\/p>\n

Hopefully we might see some images of those impact flashes soon!<\/p>\n

10h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 12:51amView of the Moon eclipsing the Sun ‘unreal’, astronaut says\"Audrey\"Black(Source: NASA TV)<\/p>\n

The Sun has now completely disappeared from Orion\u2019s view \u2014 but Earthshine is still visible.<\/p>\n

Yes, that faint glow is us: a tiny, distant dot, shining amid the darkness.<\/p>\n

One of the astronauts has just told mission control the view is “unreal”.<\/p>\n

“The camera settings for Earthshine are challenging \u2014 what we’re seeing, we’re just not picking up on the cameras,” he says.<\/p>\n

“After everything we saw earlier, this is just \u2026 we just went sci-fi.<\/p>\n

“You can see the surface of the moon, the Earthshine, and the majority of the Moon. It’s the strangest looking thing that you can see so much of the surface.”<\/p>\n

10h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 12:39amEarthshine and solar corona seen during eclipse\"Audrey<\/p>\n

Here is another live view of the solar eclipse as it gets underway.<\/p>\n

What you’re seeing now is the solar corona peeking behind the Moon \u2014 it’s the outer atmosphere of the Sun.<\/p>\n

And that tiny little dot in the centre left is Earth!<\/p>\n

Our planet is appearing illuminated, a phenomenon called Earthshine.<\/p>\n

“The Earthshine is very distinct and it creates quite an impressive visual illusion,” one of the astronauts tells mission control.<\/p>\n

“Wow, it’s amazing.”<\/p>\n

\"A(Source: NASA TV)<\/p>\n

10h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 12:35am<\/p>\n

The view from the spacecraft just before solar eclipse\"Audrey\"The(Source: NASA TV )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"8h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 2:18amWhat you need to know about the Artemis II mission On\u00a0day six…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[44686,3105,216872,43,63492,4935,288045,131,44,143827,285,327,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-591073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-apollo-13","9":"tag-artemis","10":"tag-artemis-ii","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-integrity","13":"tag-moon","14":"tag-moon-flyby","15":"tag-nasa","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-orion","18":"tag-space","19":"tag-space-exploration","20":"tag-top-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topnews","23":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591073","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=591073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}