Artemis II shares final image of Earth before planned communications blackout

The Artemis II Orion spacecraft passed behind the Moon and entered a planned communications blackout during its lunar flyby; Pilot Victor Glover shared a final photo of Earth and a message of love before contact was lost.

On Monday evening the Artemis II Orion spacecraft passed behind the Moon and temporarily lost direct contact with Mission Control. The crew aboard Orion are Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. NASA described the communications loss as planned and expected during the lunar far-side flyby and said networks such as the Deep Space Network would be standing by to reacquire signals. Before the blackout, Pilot Victor Glover shared a final photograph of Earth and offered a parting message of love. Known details: - Orion passed out of direct line of sight with Earth while on a scheduled lunar far-side flyby, producing a planned communications blackout. - NASA said the blackout was planned and that Mission Control expected to regain communications; one NASA statement mentioned about 30 minutes while other reports described a roughly 40-minute blackout. - The Orion crew are Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen; Glover shared a final Earth image and a parting message before contact was lost. - During the blackout the astronauts took photographs, made geological observations of the Moon's far side, and recorded audio notes for later analysis. - Reports note this was the first time in more than 50 years that humans were completely unreachable from Earth, and the crew exceeded the Apollo 13 distance record during the mission. Summary: The temporary loss of radio contact was part of Artemis II's planned lunar operations and provided the crew time to observe and document the Moon's far side. Mission teams expected to reacquire signals after the blackout and the Orion spacecraft will continue its return trajectory to Earth, with re-entry and splashdown scheduled later in the mission.