{"id":377071,"date":"2026-04-06T00:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T00:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/377071\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T00:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T00:51:08","slug":"artemis-astronauts-send-down-easter-message-prep-for-lunar-fly-around-monday-spaceflight-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/377071\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemis astronauts send down Easter message, prep for lunar fly around Monday \u2013 Spaceflight Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Artemis 2 commander Reid Wiseman gazes out of an Orion spacecraft cabin window, looking back at Earth, as the crew travels towards the Moon. Image: NASA.<\/p>\n

Taking time out to send Easter greetings down to Earth, the four Artemis 2 astronauts closed in on the moon Sunday, already seeing unexpected detail on the surface and giving scientists a taste of things to come during a pass over the lunar far side Monday evening.<\/p>\n

Artemis 2 commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch also presented \u201castronaut wings\u201d to Canadian crewmate Jeremy Hansen, making his first space flight, before getting down to work carrying out planned tests of new Artemis pressure suits.<\/p>\n

But first, Koch passed along Easter greetings to flight controllers, saying \u201cwe wanted to take a minute to commemorate the holiday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis time of year is something that many religions and many cultures hold dear,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a time of emotions such as joy, as well as solemnness, honoring what\u2019s going on both in our world and in our religious beliefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother aspect of that is our family tradition. And I know for me, if I was on the Earth right now, I would be with my family in Houston and we would be hiding confetti eggs in the backyard and watching two very sweet little girls go try to find them.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the crew hid \u201ca few eggs around the cabin\u201d to mark the occasion. \u201cThey were the dehydrated scrambled egg variety,\u201d she added, \u201cbut we\u2019re all pretty happy with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hansen said that \u201cno matter your faith or religion, for me the teachings of Jesus were always a very simple truth, of love, universal love, love yourself and love others.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two major goals of the Artemis 2 flight are to thoroughly test the Orion moonship and to work through the procedures and techniques needed to safely guide future crews to the moon. The Artemis 2 crew also plans a full agenda of science observations when they pass behind the moon\u2019s far side Monday afternoon and evening.<\/p>\n

Looking at the moon overnight Saturday, Koch told flight controllers \u201cthe moon we are looking at is not the moon you see from Earth,\u201d adding that even some 75,000 miles from their target, they could easily discern topology and subtle differences in brightness.<\/p>\n

She said Glover was \u201cabsolutely mesmerized\u201d by a vast basin where \u201cyou can actually see the terrain. It\u2019s not an albedo change, it\u2019s not shadows. You can actually just tell that they are terrain features of the multi-rigged crater there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glover initially thought the structure was Mare Orientale, or \u201cEastern Sea,\u201d a high-priority target that straddles the terminator separating the side of the moon facing Earth and the normally unseen far side.<\/p>\n

Jacki Mahaffey in mission control replied that \u201cwe think based on your description of the basin that you saw, that is (Mare) Imbrium.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, that sounds right,\u201d Koch agreed. \u201cI\u2019ve never noticed that Imbrium has such a distinctive high albedo ring defining it. Also worth mentioning, we do apparently have a full moon. We can\u2019t detect any terminator at all. It looks like full limb all the way around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mare Imbrium, or the \u201cSea of Rain,\u201d has a diameter of 710 miles, one of the moon\u2019s largest \u201cseas,\u201d or maria, formed by a massive impact event several billion years ago. It is surrounded by mountains that were formed by the impact.<\/p>\n

Artemis 2 commander Reid Wiseman agreed the view of the moon was spectacular, even at a great distance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not one for hyperbole, but it\u2019s the only thing I could come up with just seeing (the crater) Tycho, there\u2019s mountains to the north, you can see Copernicus \u2026 it\u2019s just everything from the training, but in three dimensions and absolutely unbelievable. This is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMoon joy,\u201d replied Mahaffey.<\/p>\n

Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen were launched Wednesday and, after spending a full day checking out the Orion spacecraft, the ship left Earth orbit Thursday and headed for the moon.<\/p>\n

Overnight Saturday, Koch said the crew had switched from measuring their increasing distance from Earth to marking the decreasing distance to the moon. At the time she spoke, the Orion spacecraft was 76,362 nautical miles from the moon and 168,000 miles from Earth.<\/p>\n

Before going to bed, the astronauts were told engineers had been able to restore Orion\u2019s toilet to normal operation after trouble earlier dumping stored urine overboard. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt this time you are go for all types of uses of the toilet,\u201d mission control radioed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the crew rejoices!\u201d Koch said. \u201cThank you!<\/p>\n

The crew began Easter Sunday in space with a wakeup call featuring CeeLo Green\u2019s \u201cWorking Class Heroes\u201d and a recorded message from retired astronaut Charlie Duke.<\/p>\n

\u201cHello Reid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy. This is Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke,\u201d he radioed. \u201cJohn Young and I landed on the moon in 1972 in a lunar module we named Orion. I\u2019m glad to see a different kind of Orion helping return humans to the moon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to you and the whole team on the ground for building a family. I pray it reminds you that we in America and all of the world are cheering you on. Thanks to you and the whole team on the ground for building on our Apollo legacy with Artemis. Godspeed and safe travels home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crew\u2019s primary objective Sunday was to work with their bright orange pressure suits, designed to keep an astronaut alive for more than six days if their spacecraft lost air pressure or suffered some other sort of catastrophic failure.<\/p>\n

Wiseman and his crewmates planned to put on their suits in the cramped confines of the Orion capsule to give flight controllers a better idea of how fast they can be donned in an emergency.<\/p>\n

They planned to pressurize the suits, practice getting into and out of their seats while suited, assess their ability to move about and to eat and drink using dispensers in the suit\u2019s helmet.<\/p>\n

Just after midnight, the Orion capsule was expected to coast into the moon\u2019s \u201csphere of influence,\u201d where lunar gravity will begin exerting more of a pull on the spacecraft than Earth\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The astronauts will reach a distance of 248,655 miles from Earth at 1:56 p.m. Monday, passing a record set by the crew of Apollo 13 in 1970. Wiseman and company will fly behind the moon and out of contact with Earth for about 40 minutes starting at 6:47 p.m. Monday.<\/p>\n

While out of contact, the crew will pass within about 4,070 miles of the lunar surface at close approach and set a new distance record of 252,760 miles three minutes later. They\u2019ll fly back into contact with Earth at 7:27 p.m.<\/p>\n

But they will be able to observe far side features well before and after passing directly behind the moon and even witness a solar eclipse as the moon passes in front of the sun from their perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have amazing camera data from decades of orbiting spacecraft,\u201d said Kelsey Young, a member of the Artemis lunar science team.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the human eye, especially when it\u2019s connected to a well-trained brain \u2014 which I assure you these four people have \u2014 are capable of in the blink of an eye making nuanced color observations that Apollo observations told us can tell us something scientifically.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Artemis 2 commander Reid Wiseman gazes out of an Orion spacecraft cabin window, looking back at Earth, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-377071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}