These Artemis II lunar images show a view that almost no human has ever seen
Less than a week after launch, NASA’s Artemis II crew traveling in an Orion spacecraft has officially traveled further into space than any human in history. They have reached about 252,752 miles from Earth, surpassing the benchmark set by the famous near-disastrous Apollo 13 mission, which traveled 248,655 miles from home.
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen – the crew aboard – drove Orion on a deliberate free-return orbit around the Moon, a path designed to use the moon’s gravity to slingshot them around its far side and bring them home.
When Orion came within about 4,070 miles of the moon’s surface, its communications were blacked out for 40 minutes, for one of the best reasons you can hope to lose your communications: The moon was in the way.
Artemis II: Moon images reveal ‘a view few in human history have ever seen’ Land on X
While looking out their windows to enjoy the view of the dark side of the moon, the crew observed meteor impacts flashing across the dark surface, much like the ones I wrote about recently. The crew was also able to observe and catalog geological features, including massive craters, one of which astronaut Jeremy Hansen suggested was named “Carroll” to honor Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll Taylor Wiseman, who died of cancer in 2020.
Artemis to mission is not just a sightseeing tour. Experiments abounded, one of which is directly linked to its travel distance. Traveling this far means leaving Earth’s radiation shield behind. The mission is also a test of how much risk humans can endure before long-duration space missions begin to cause lasting health damage.
The crew will be back on Friday, April 10. If they all return home safely and all goes according to plan over the next few years, NASA hopes to have astronauts back on the moon by 2028, meaning this record may not last long, especially with China building its own manned lunar missions.
All records are meant to be broken, but especially this one. As Artemis II astronaut Jeremy Hansen said while aboard Orion, “But most importantly, we choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next to make sure this record does not stand for long.”
Photos from the crew’s trip have dominated social media feeds throughout the day. We here at VICE grabbed a few of our favorites for you to enjoy below.
