NASA’s Artemis II Mission Completes Lunar Flyby, Sets Farthest Human Spaceflight Record

NASA's Artemis II created history on Monday, as the mission crew completed the lunar flyby. With this, the four astronauts became the first humans to see the far side of the Moon directly. Additionally, the crew also set the record for travelling the farthest distance from the Earth, breaking the previous record, which had remained untouched since 1970. Aboard the Orion spacecraft, the crew also got the chance to observe a rare solar eclipse and view the unlit surface of the Moon.

Artemis II Completes Historic Fly Across the Moon

The historic moment was live-streamed by the US space agency on its website, YouTube, as well as streaming platforms Prime Video, Apple TV, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max and Roku. NASA marked the achievement as “humanity's first return to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.”

As part of the lunar flyby, the Orion spacecraft had to approach the Moon, enter its sphere of influence (the area in space where the Moon's gravitational pull is stronger than the Earth's), circle the far side of the celestial body, and then begin heading towards the Earth after emerging from the other side. NASA highlighted that the flyby also included a 40-minute loss of signal from the command station when the spacecraft moves behind the Moon.

During this, the Artemis II crew also surpassed Apollo 13's previous record of the farthest distance travelled by a human of 2,48,655 miles, by reaching a maximum distance of 2,52,756 miles from the Earth. NASA said during the flyby, the four astronauts photographed impact craters, ancient lava flows, and surface cracks and ridges on the far side of the Moon.

Interestingly, the crew also observed a nearly hour-long solar eclipse from the spacecraft. An alignment between Orion, the Moon, and the Sun caused this eclipse. The rare opportunity allowed the astronauts to view the unlit surface of the Moon, the solar corona as it appeared around the celestial body's edge, and as many as six light flashes created by meteoroids hitting the lunar surface.

Most of the data captured by the Artemis II crew has already been shared with the ground team on Earth and is currently being downlinked from the spacecraft. The astronauts will also discuss their observations with the lunar science team on Tuesday. The entire conversation will be broadcast in NASA's live coverage.