{"id":587345,"date":"2026-04-07T04:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T04:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/587345\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T04:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T04:59:08","slug":"artemis-ii-crew-becomes-first-to-view-moons-far-side-in-the-internet-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/587345\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemis II crew becomes first to view moon\u2019s far side in the internet age"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The near side of the Moon (the hemisphere we see from Earth) visible at the top half of the disk. Everything below the crater is the far side of the Moon.Uncredited\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

The last time astronauts had their eyes on the moon\u2019s far side there were no digital cameras, no real time dialogue with scientists on the ground and no internet to send their conversations live around the globe. On Monday, the Artemis II mission offered something entirely new: planetary science as live theatre.<\/p>\n

For about six hours, astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen provided detailed descriptions of what they were seeing as their space capsule, dubbed Integrity, made a flyby around the back of the moon. <\/p>\n

The astronauts\u2019 observing campaign, which was broadcast online, was the scientific climax of a mission intended to lay the groundwork for future moon landings and far more ambitious research projects to come.<\/p>\n

Artemis II is about to break a record that should never have been<\/a><\/p>\n

Unlike lunar missions of old, the Artemis program has set things up so that, while the mission is under way, scientists are on hand in a newly designed facility called the Science Evaluation Room, adjacent to mission control. There researchers can take on board what they are hearing and help consult with and guide explorations. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so gratifying to see this operation structure come to fruition,\u201d said Kelsey Young, the lunar science lead for Artemis II who was on the console from Houston for much of the observing.<\/p>\n

By the time the lunar flyby was in progress, the crew was well into their fourth day in space after a Wednesday evening launch and an engine burn one day later that put them on course for the encounter.<\/p>\n

The previous title was held by the Apollo 13 crew, who logged a maximum distance of 248,655 miles from Earth.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Artemis II is a test flight, the first for the Orion crew capsule with people on board. The craft was designed to ferry humans to lunar space and also allow future crew to dock with landers, yet to be tested, that can take astronauts down to moon\u2019s the surface. <\/p>\n

But Monday was all about getting the most out a rare opportunity: the first time in more than 53 years that humans have seen the moon\u2019s far side, including some areas that human eyes have never witnessed.<\/p>\n

The point of the exercise was clear nearly as soon as mission\u2019s observing campaign of lunar features began shortly after 2:30 p.m. ET on Monday. <\/p>\n

While the moon has been mapped up close by orbiting satellites, planetary scientists still have many questions about its history. Astronaut observations can help address many of these because human eyes are responsive to subtle differences in colour and brightness that cameras can\u2019t always see. In those differences may lie answers \u2013 as well as new questions \u2013 about lunar evolution.<\/p>\n

Once observations were under way, the Artemis II astronauts took turns at the windows in pairs, working their way through a detailed list of targets. They took photos but also described aloud what they were seeing and conferred with scientists at the same time.<\/p>\n

At one point, Ms. Koch could be heard describing the startling brightness of fresh craters seen against the dark lunar landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it really looks like is like a lampshade with tiny pinprick holes and the light shining through. They are so bright compared to the rest of the moon,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Capt. Glover was also quite descriptive in his account, prompting Dr. Young to praise his evocative language.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Moon is seen in the window of the Orion spacecraft on April 6.Uncredited\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

During the flyby interval, the crew spent about 40 minutes out of contact with mission control when the moon was blocking their radio signal. <\/p>\n

It was also during this time that Integrity reached its nearest point to the moon, estimated at 6,545 kilometres from the moon\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

The crew also set a new record for how far humans have travelled from Earth<\/a>, with an expected maximum distance of 406,771 kilometres.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long lived,\u201d said Col. Hansen once Integrity has exceeded the previous distance record set by Apollo 13 astronauts in 1970.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen enjoys a shave inside the Orion spacecraft during Flight Day 5 and ahead of the crew’s lunar flyby.The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Toward the end of the flyby, the crew also observed a solar eclipse from space. Even from a small camera sitting on one of the spacecraft\u2019s solar panels the eclipse was a spectacular and eerie sight for those watching live from Earth.<\/p>\n

Aboard Integrity it was clearly much more, as the glow of Earth bathed part of the night portion of the moon during the eclipse.<\/p>\n

Capt. Glover described the scene as \u201cscience fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no adjectives to describe what we\u2019re seeing out our window right now,\u201d said Capt. Wiseman.<\/p>\n

During the 53-minute eclipse, the crew was on the lookout for signs of dust lofted above the moon\u2019s surface and backlit by the rising Earth in the distance.<\/p>\n

The astronauts could also be heard reporting to scientists that they spotted at least four flashes that they thought were owing to meteorites explosively striking the moon\u2019s darkened surface, much to scientists\u2019 delight.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

NASA astronaut Christina Koch peers out of one of the Orion spacecraft’s main cabin windows, looking back at Earth on April 2.NASA\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Researchers\u2019 aim is to have the same real-time communication stream running for a lunar landing, which could take place as early as 2028. That made Monday\u2019s exercise a key test of the system as well as a genuine scientific opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something we\u2019ve been working on for the first surface mission but seeing it in action on an actual mission is fantastic,\u201d said Gordon Osinski, a planetary scientist at Western University in London, Ont., and a member of the Artemis program science team.<\/p>\n

The encounter was called a lunar flyby because Integrity did not orbit the moon. Instead it continues to trace a figure-8 loop that took it around the moon where the collective gravitational pull of the Earth and moon together bent its course back toward home for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Friday evening.<\/p>\n

How the Artemis II mission is rekindling humanity\u2019s long love affair with the moon<\/a><\/p>\n

The crew will hold a debrief with researchers on Tuesday, but the real prize will come after Integrity returns and researchers can pore through the thousands of images that the astronauts are bringing back with them.<\/p>\n

For scientists and for those watching as the flyby unfolded, the day\u2019s events offered not only plenty of data, but the genuine drama of a live performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The near side of the Moon (the hemisphere we see from Earth) visible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,66,306],"class_list":["post-587345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}