On Monday, the four-person crew — Cmdr. Reid Wiseman, specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen and pilot Victor Glover — had their historic flyby of the moon.
The mission’s showstopper event gave the astronauts the world’s first-ever glimpses of parts of the lunar dark side, which they described as being “impossibly rugged” and “alien” — and broke the historic record set more than 50 years ago by Apollo 13.
They later crowded around the windows — wearing protective glasses — to watch a solar eclipse. Unlike on Earth, where the celestial phenomenon lasts just a few minutes, the crew’s glimpse lasted for nearly an hour.
The crew then spoke with President Trump, who congratulated them on their historic feat and called them “modern-day pioneers.”
“You’ve made history and made all America really proud, incredibly proud,” Trump told them, before peppering them with questions and inviting them to the White House once they’re back on Earth. Read more, see photos and video here.
Artemis II’s four astronauts zoomed past Apollo 13’s 248,655-mile mark around 1:56 p.m. ET, reaching 248,656 miles as it hurtled past the moon at nearly 2,000 mph.
The extraordinary new record occurred nearly 56 years ago to the day that Apollo 13 set it on April 14, 1970, as the troubled spacecraft used the moon’s gravity to slingshot itself back to Earth without using any of its waning power after suffering an onboard explosion.
But Artemis II isn’t done yet.
The astronauts are flying farther than any humans in history moment by moment until about 7:07 p.m., when they are expected to begin their journey back to Earth.
Their new distance record is expected to end up at about 252,757 miles.
Artemis II’s Orion capsule will be making its way to Earth from there, returning home around 8 p.m. Friday. Read more, see photos, and diagrams here.
"The important point here is that we have had, last month, over four of our important military bases, foreign drones. These drones were large, they were un-hackable, they obviously were not recreational, so some foreign power — probably China, maybe Russia — was operating drones over our critical air force bases," Chang said on "Mornings with Maria."
"Really, right now, the United States needs to be able to defend its bases in the homeland because those drone flights were a warning to the United States of some sort," he continued.
Chang suggested the drone activity could be an attempt to send President Donald Trump the message that, if U.S. forces escalate in the region, China could respond by potentially targeting bases on American soil. Read more, and see videos here.
The Artemis II
astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft reached a new mission milestone
as the crew prepares to slingshot around the far side of the moon later
Monday, breaking the record for how far humans have traveled from Earth.
At 12:37 a.m. Monday, Mission Control Houston confirmed the spacecraft officially entered the lunar sphere of influence at the tail end of the fifth day of space travel. It marks a major mission milestone that means the gravitational forces of the moon were now greater on the spacecraft than the pull of the Earth’s gravity.
"We are now falling to the Moon rather than rising away from Earth,” Artemis II Mission Specialist Christina Koch said from aboard the spacecraft about an hour after entering the lunar sphere of influence. “It is an amazing milestone!"
Artemis II will make its closest approach to the moon later Monday during flight day six.
NASA said it will broadcast coverage of the mission beginning at 1 p.m. ET. Read more here.
