Artemis 2 crew to fly farther from Earth than ever before

The crew of the Artemis 2 mission has entered the Moon’s sphere of influence, where the Moon’s gravity acts more strongly on Orion than Earth’s. NASA reported on its website that the astronauts will be farther from Earth during the flyby than any humans in history.

The mission’s maximum distance from Earth is expected to reach about 252,757 miles, 4,102 miles farther than the record set by the Apollo 13 crew in 1970.

The goal of the mission is to fly around the Moon in a free-return trajectory. Orion will not enter lunar orbit but will pass over the far side at an altitude of about 6,500 kilometres before heading back towards Earth under the influence of gravity.

The crew consists of four astronauts – Victor Glover, Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman and Canadian Jeremy Hansen.

The flyby will last approximately six hours, during which they will capture detailed photographs of the Moon’s silhouette, offering a rare and scientifically valuable view of sunlight filtering around its edges during a lunar eclipse.

At closest approach, they will have about three hours to observe the Moon, with part of the flight taking place without contact with Earth. The communications blackout during the far-side passage will last about 40 minutes.

The mission launched from Cape Canaveral on 1 April and left Earth orbit after about 24 hours. Orion is scheduled to land in the Pacific Ocean on Saturday night.

(reuters, max)