Historic Artemis II flight brings humans back to deep space

The crew of the Artemis II mission made history by travelling further from Earth than any humans before.

While flying over the Moon’s far side, the astronauts observed rare phenomena, including flashes believed to be caused by meteorite impacts on the lunar surface. The six-day mission has provided scientists with new data on this little-explored region of the Moon.

The flight marks the first crewed mission to the Moon since the Apollo programme. Artemis aims to return humans to the lunar surface by 2028 and lay the groundwork for future missions to Mars.

The crew also set a new distance record from Earth and experienced a 40-minute communications blackout during their flyby of the Moon. One of the most striking moments was the sight of Earth ‘rising’ above the lunar horizon once again.

(reuters, mja)