Artemis II crew makes 7-hour flyby of Moon, observes far-side parts never seen by humans

FLORIDA: The Artemis II crew is making a seven-hour flyby of the Moon, with astronauts observing the far side of the moon never seen by humans. The mission has also broken the record for the farthest distance travelled by humans from Earth, breaking the Apollo 13 mission’s record of 248,655 miles.

The crew is working in shifts as they make the necessary observations set by the NASA’s science team that include future Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission landing site Reiner Gamma, a bright, mysterious swirl the origin of which scientists are still trying to understand, and Glushko, a bright, 27-mile-wide crater known for the white streaks that shoot out from it for up to 500 miles.

“The crew reported colour nuances, which will help enhance scientific understandings of the Moon. Shades of browns and blues that can be picked out with human eyes can help reveal the mineral composition of a feature and its age. As crew reports are received, the science team is updating the observation plan based on their follow-up questions and sending up new guidance to the crew,” NASA said in a blog post.

NASA Artemis passing close to the Moon pic.twitter.com/jLvGoW1IR9

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 7, 2026

NASA astronaut Christina Koch said that the moon appears to be browner, as opposed to the shades of white and grey seen from the earth. “Something I just heard from the window team is ‘the more I look at the Moon, the browner and browner it looks’,” NASA astronaut Christina Koch said.

Koch added that some of the Moon’s craters look like “a lampshade with tiny pinprick holes”. “All the really bright, new craters — some of them are super tiny, most of them are pretty small — there’s a couple that really stand out, obviously, and what it really looks like is a lampshade with tiny pinprick holes and the light shining through,” she said.

The crew includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The Artemis II reached a maximum distance of 252,752 miles from Earth at 1:57 pm EDT, surpassing the Apollo 13’s record in 1970 by about 4,102 miles, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said in a post on X.

The Orion Spacecraft, carrying the Artemis II crew, is expected to reach its maximum distance from our planet at 7:07 pm ET. The Artemis II mission marks a key step in NASA’s plans to return humans to the Moon and advance future deep space exploration.

To commemorate the Artemis II mission, the astronauts announced their suggestion to rename certain features on the Moon to honour the Orion spacecraft, named Integrity, as well as commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll, NASA said.

On April 5, science team sent the crew the final list of 30 lunar surface targets, including the Orientale basin, a nearly 600-mile-wide crater that straddles the Moon’s near and far sides. This 3.8-billion-year-old crater formed when a large object struck the lunar surface and retains clear evidence of that collision, including dramatic topography in its rings. The crew will study Orientale’s features up close and from multiple angles as they pass by, NASA said in a blogpost.

Hertzsprung basin is also on the crew’s list of targets. Northwest of Orientale, it is a nearly 400-mile-wide crater on the Moon’s far side. An older ringed basin, Hertzsprung, offers a unique contrast to Orientale because its features have been degraded by subsequent impacts. By comparing the topography of the two craters, the crew’s observations will help scientists gain insight into how lunar features evolve over geologic timescales.

The Artemis II mission marks a key step in NASA’s plans to return humans to the Moon and advance future deep space exploration. (ANI)