Artemis II astronauts describe seeing the moon's far side

The Artemis II crew reported first views of the lunar far side from the Orion capsule as they travel toward a planned lunar flyby, and the mission will return to Earth with a scheduled splashdown on Friday.

The Artemis II crew is more than halfway to the moon and reported first views of the lunar far side from the Orion capsule. The four-person team — NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — launched Wednesday on a 10-day mission around the moon. They are the first people to fly aboard NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule and have been conducting life-support and systems checks in space. Crew members said the far side looked different from Earth views and compared what they saw to their study materials. Known details: - The crew has seen the far side of the moon during transit and described its appearance as different from the familiar near side. - The mission launched Wednesday and is a roughly 10-day trip around the moon, with the spacecraft officially moon-bound after a key engine burn Thursday evening. - The Orion capsule has a habitable volume roughly equivalent to a camper van; crew members reported sleeping and managing routine tasks while in transit. - The spacecraft is expected to enter the moon's sphere of influence at 12:41 a.m. ET Monday, and the official lunar flyby period begins at 2:45 p.m. ET and lasts six hours. - During the flyby the crew may come as close as 4,600 miles to the lunar surface and are expected to reach a maximum distance from Earth of 252,757 miles at 7:05 p.m. ET, surpassing the Apollo 13 distance record earlier in the day. - The observation period will include an expected solar eclipse from the capsule at 8:35 p.m. ET, and after the flyby the crew will spend about three days returning for a planned Pacific splashdown off the coast of San Diego on Friday just after 8 p.m. ET. Summary: The crew will use the lunar flyby to observe and photograph far-side features such as craters, ridges and ancient lava flows, which may inform scientific study. After the flyby and the scheduled eclipse observation, the mission will complete its return journey and conclude with a planned splashdown on Friday.