Artemis II sets record distance during far-side blackout

The Artemis II mission rewrote the history of spaceflight when its crew of four travelled further from Earth than anyone before. The Orion spacecraft carrying NASA and Canadian astronauts flew over the far side of the Moon and reached a record distance of more than 400,000 kilometres. There was a planned communications blackout of roughly 40 minutes during the orbit.

The astronauts observed the lunar surface during the approximately six-hour stretch, including glimpses of meteorite impacts reminiscent of phenomena observed in the Apollo era.

The flight also provided a wealth of new data for scientists and was a symbolic follow-up to the historic missions of the 1960s and 1970s. During the flight, the crew also remembered the late astronaut Jim Lovell, whose voice accompanied them at the start of the day.

The Artemis programme aims to return humans to the Moon by 2028 and establish a base for future missions, including trips to Mars.

(reuters, pir)