Artemis II astronauts break space record
Artemis II astronauts on a lunar flyby mission have broken Apollo 13’s distance record as humans travel further from earth than ever before.
Source: NASAÂ
Artemis II astronauts have set a new record for the furthest distance humans have travelled from Earth as they start looping around the moon.
The history-making space mission was on Tuesday (AEST) undertaking a lunar flyby that would take seven hours.
NASA said the crew of four was the first to see the far side of the moon with human eyes.
The Orion spacecraft will move behind the moon and experience a communications blackout before swinging back.
The Artemis II broke the record by 6601 kilometres for the furthest distance humans have travelled from Earth, previously set by Apollo 13 in 1970 (400,171 kilometres).
The crew â Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen â Â will photograph both the near and far sides of the moon and describe what they see over their seven-hour flyby.
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The astronauts have a unique perspective of the moonâs pock-marked lunar surface as they make their approach.
During an emotional moment, they requested to name one of the craters they could see after commander Reid Wisemanâs late wife Carroll, who died of cancer in 2020.
Another crater they wanted to name Integrity after their Orion spacecraft.
âA number of years ago we started this journey ⌠and we lost a loved one and thereâs a feature on a really neat place on the moon ⌠at certain times of the Moonâs transit around Earth we will be able to see this from Earth,â said astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
The Artemis II crew, which launched from Florida last week, awoke for their sixth flight day to a recorded message from late Apollo 8 and 13 astronaut Jim Lovell, who died last year aged 97.
âWelcome to my old neighbourhood,â said Lovell, who also named a crater after his wife, Marilyn, in 1968.
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âItâs a historic day, and I know how busy youâll be, but âdonât forget to âenjoy the view ⌠good â luck and godspeed.â
The astronauts âlater on Tuesday were due to reach their maximum distance from earth of about 406,780km â 6,606km beyond the record held by Lovell and his Apollo 13 crew for 56 years.
As they approached the distance record, they were sailing around the moonâs far side above its darkened surface as it eclipses what will appear to be a basketball-sized earth in â the distant background.
The milestone is a climactic point in the nearly â10-day Artemis II mission, âthe first crewed test flight of NASAâs Artemis program.
The multibillion-dollar series of missions aims to return astronauts to the moonâs surface by 2028 before China, and establish âa long-term US presence there over the next decade, building a moon base that would serve as a proving ground for potential future missions âto Mars.
The lunar flyby will plunge the crew into darkness and brief communications blackouts as the moon blocks them from NASAâs Deep Space Network, a global array of massive radio communications antennas the âagency âhas been using to talk to the crew.
The flyby âwill last about seven hours, during which the astronauts will use professional âcameras to take detailed photos of the moon through Orionâs window, showing a rare and scientifically valuable vantage point of sunlight filtering around its edges.
The crew will also have the chance to photograph a rare moment in which their home planet, dwarfed by their record-breaking distance in space, will set and rise with the lunar horizon as they swing around, a celestial remix of a moonrise seen from earth.
A team of âdozens of lunar scientists positioned in the Science Evaluation Room at NASAâs Johnson Space Center in Houston will be taking notes as âthe astronauts, who studied an array of â lunar phenomena as part of mission training, describe their view in real time.
-with AAP
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