{"id":515399,"date":"2026-04-06T06:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T06:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/515399\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T06:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T06:44:09","slug":"artemis-ii-crew-enters-moons-sphere-of-influence-ahead-of-historic-flyby-artemis-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/515399\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemis II crew enters moon\u2019s \u2018sphere of influence\u2019 ahead of historic flyby | Artemis II"},"content":{"rendered":"

The four astronauts on Nasa\u2019s Artemis II mission<\/a> have entered the moon\u2019s \u201csphere of influence\u201d, where its gravity has a stronger pull on the spacecraft than Earth\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The crew made the transition, four days, six hours and two minutes into the mission, when about 39,000 miles (62,800km) from the moon, and 232,000 miles (373,400km) away from the Earth. The next key milestone will be the trip later on Monday to the far side of the moon, venturing deeper into space than any humans before.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all extremely excited for tomorrow,\u201d Lori Glaze, the deputy associate administrator for Nasa\u2019s Exploration Systems Development Mission, said on Sunday. \u201cOur flight operations team and our science team are ready for the first lunar flyby in more than 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crew are the first astronauts bound for the moon in more than half a century, picking up where the Apollo programme left off in 1972.<\/p>\n

Apollo flights of the 1960s and 70s flew about 70 miles above the lunar surface, but the Artemis crew will be just over 4,000 miles at their closest approach, which will allow them to see the complete, spherical surface of the moon, including regions near both poles.<\/p>\n

During the flyby, which will last about six hours, the crew will have to observe the celestial body with their naked eyes, along with cameras they have onboard. The journey promises views of the moon\u2019s far side that were too dark or too difficult to see by the 24 Apollo astronauts who preceded them.<\/p>\n

When Orion passes behind the moon, the mission will enter a planned communications blackout of about 40 minutes as the lunar surface blocks the radio signals needed for the Deep Space<\/a> Network to connect with the spacecraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important to remember that we don\u2019t always know exactly what they\u2019re going to see,\u201d Kelsey Young, the lead scientist for the Artemis II<\/a> mission, told a press conference on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"'You‘You look beautiful’: Artemis II crew makes contact from space \u2013 video<\/p>\n

If all proceeds smoothly, as the Orion spacecraft whips around the moon, the astronauts \u2013 Americans Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover and Canadian Jeremy Hansen \u2013 could set a record by venturing farther from Earth than any human before.<\/p>\n

The astronauts have already taken in sights of the lunar surface never before seen by human eyes. In the early hours of Sunday, the US space agency published an image taken by the Artemis II crew, showing a distant moon with the Orientale basin (sometimes known as the moon\u2019s \u201cGrand Canyon\u201d) visible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis mission marks the first time the entire basin has been seen with human eyes,\u201d Nasa said. The huge crater, which resembles a bullseye, has been photographed before by orbiting cameras.<\/p>\n

As they awoke for day five of the 10-day mission, the Orion spaceship was nearly 215,000 miles (346,000km) from Earth and 65,000 miles from the moon, according to Nasa\u2019s online dashboard.<\/p>\n

Former astronaut Charlie Duke, who walked on the moon in 1972 as part of the Apollo 16 mission, gave the ceremonial wakeup call to the crew. \u201cBelow you on the moon is a photo of my 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,\u201d said the 90-year-old.<\/p>\n

Nasa said the Artemis crew had completed a manual piloting demonstration and reviewed their lunar flyby plan, including reviewing the surface features they must analyse and photograph during their time circling the moon.<\/p>\n

At the same time, \u201cwe\u2019re focusing very much on the ecosystem, the life support system of the spacecraft,\u201d Nasa\u2019s chief, Jared Isaacman, said on Sunday in a televised interview with CNN. \u201cThis is the first time astronauts have ever flown on this spacecraft before. That\u2019s what we\u2019re most interested in getting data from.\u201d<\/p>\n

On day five, the astronauts were testing their \u201csurvival\u201d suits, according to Nasa. The bright orange suits are worn during takeoff and re-entry, but also emergency situations, such as cabin depressurisation.<\/p>\n

While the four astronauts will not touch down on the lunar surface, they are expected to break the record for the farthest distance from Earth during their pass around the moon.<\/p>\n

Over the next day, \u201cthey will be on the far side of the moon, they will eclipse that record, and we\u2019re going to learn an awful lot about the spacecraft,\u201d said Isaacman.<\/p>\n

The information will be \u201cparamount to set up for subsequent missions like Artemis III in 2027 and, of course, the lunar landing itself on Artemis IV in 2028\u201d.<\/p>\n

With Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The four astronauts on Nasa\u2019s Artemis II mission have entered the moon\u2019s \u201csphere of influence\u201d, where its gravity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59,90,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-515399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}