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NASA\u2019s four Artemis astronauts swung behind the moon and are headed home, in a journey that shattered space travel distance records and brought people the closest they\u2019ve been to the lunar surface in more than 50 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of your flight controllers and your flight director have flipped their Artemis II patches around. We are Earth-bound and ready to bring you home,\u201d Jenni Gibbons, a Canadian space agency astronaut and backup crew member for Artemis II, told the astronauts as they emerged from an expected communications blackout around the moon.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n At their nearest distance to the moon, the Artemis II\u2019s Lockheed Martin Corp-built Orion capsule came within an estimated 4 067 miles of the lunar surface, according to calculations by NASA. From the crew\u2019s point of view, the moon would have appeared roughly the size of a basketball in someone\u2019s outstretched hand.<\/p>\n The spacecraft reached its maximum distance from Earth minutes later, reaching 252 756 miles, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a post on X.<\/p>\n The astronauts earlier broke the distance record for space travel. Shortly before 2 p.m. New York time on Monday, they surpassed the distance the Apollo 13 crew traveled in 1970 of 248,655 miles (400,170 kilometers) from Earth, NASA said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back to everything that we hold dear,\u201d Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen said as the crew broke the record. \u201cBut we most importantly choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long lived.\u201d<\/p>\n Hansen then suggested naming two craters on the moon\u2019s surface. The first suggestion was Integrity, after the nickname for the crew\u2019s capsule, and the second was Carroll, after mission commander Reid Wiseman\u2019s late wife. Wiseman and the crew teared up during the suggestion and all embraced.<\/p>\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The close approach was the pinnacle moment of NASA\u2019s Artemis II mission, which launched to space on Wednesday, April 1, sending NASA astronauts Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Hansen en route to the moon.<\/p>\n During the flyby, the Artemis II crew entered the predicted communications blackout before they passed by the far side of the moon, blocking their line of sight with Earth. Similar blackouts occurred during the uncrewed Artemis I mission and the Apollo missions.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a poignant moment, as it\u2019s the first time in over 50 years that we have humans completely unreachable by anyone else on Earth,\u201d Leah Cheshier Mustachio, public affairs officer at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center, said as the crew slipped behind the moon. \u201cNo matter how distant or secluded we could reach anyone living on Earth. But while the crew flies behind the moon, it\u2019s simply impossible to make contact with them.\u201d<\/p>\n After the flyby wrapped up, the crew spoke with President Donald Trump, who invited them to visit the White House.<\/p>\n \u201cToday you\u2019ve made history and made all America really proud, incredibly proud,\u201d Trump told them.<\/p>\n The astronauts also had a unique chance to observe a solar eclipse from Orion. The sun passed behind the moon from the spacecraft\u2019s vantage point, giving the astronauts the ability to image and study the sun\u2019s outer atmosphere, known as the corona. They had an opportunity to see and take pictures of various planets, including Venus, Mars, Saturn and, of course, Earth.<\/p>\n \u201cNo matter how long we look at this, our brains are not processing this image in front of us. It is absolutely spectacular, surreal,\u201d Wiseman said of the eclipse. \u201cThere\u2019s no adjective. I\u2019m going to need to invent some new ones to describe what we\u2019re looking at out this window.\u201d<\/p>\n The mission serves as an elaborate dress rehearsal meant to test vehicles that will be used to help land humans on the lunar surface in potentially two years.<\/p>\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/p>\n CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Leading up to closest approach, the crew took numerous images of the highest priority targets on the moon\u2019s surface, and described in detail the colors and lighting of the surface they saw with their eyes. NASA has been hopeful that the astronauts will be able to use their eyes \u2013 \u201cthe best cameras in the universe\u201d as NASA flight director Judd Frieling put it during a news conference \u2013 to see parts of the far side of the moon that no human has seen before.<\/p>\n \u201cIt turns out there\u2019s about 60% of the far side, I think, that has never been seen by human eyes because of the lighting conditions,\u201d Wiseman said before launch. \u201cApollo always wanted that light on the front side of the moon for their landing and launch capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n In the days after launch, NASA scientists had been working to finalize the science objectives and list of lunar targets they want the crew to pay attention to during the flyby. By comparing how certain targets look from different angles and under different lighting conditions as the capsule moves, they hope the crew can help scientists learn more about how the moon\u2019s surface evolved over time.<\/p>\n \u201cThe human eye, especially when it\u2019s connected to a well-trained brain, which I assure you these four people have, are capable of, just in literally the blink of an eye, making nuanced color observations that Apollo observations told us can tell us something scientifically,\u201d Kelsey Young, NASA\u2019s Artemis science flight operations lead, said during a news conference on Saturday.<\/p>\n The Artemis II crew also broke more than just distance records on Monday. Glover becomes the first Black astronaut to travel to the moon, while Koch is the first woman to do the same. Hansen is also now the first Canadian to travel to the moon.<\/p>\n \u201cTo all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you from the moon,\u201d Glover radioed ahead of the loss of communications.<\/p>\n \u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nDress rehearsal\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n