On Monday over the course of seven hours, the Artemis II crew, comprised of Reid Wiseman, commander, Victor Glover, pilot, Christina Koch, mission specialist and Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist, became the first humans to lay eyes on the far side of the moon since the Apollo 17 crew hurtled away from the lunar surface in 1972.
As the vessel circled to the far side of the moon, hovering just over 4,000 miles above the lunar surface at its closest, the crew was able to observe features that human eyes had never directly seen before
Earlier in the day, the astronauts woke up to the song “Good Morning” by Mandisa and TobyMac, greetings from mission control at Johnson Space Center in Houston — and to a special message for them from Jim Lovell, the pilot of Apollo 8 and commander of Apollo 13.
“Hello, Artemis II! This is Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell. Welcome to my old neighborhood!” Lovell, who recorded the message before his death last August, told the astronauts. “I’m proud to pass that torch on to you — as you swing around the moon and lay the groundwork for missions to Mars, for the benefit of all. It’s a historic day, and I know how busy you’ll be. But don’t forget to enjoy the view. So, Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy, and all the great teams supporting you — good luck and Godspeed from all of us here on the good Earth.”
Then, shortly before 1 p.m. CST, the crew of Artemis II made history again, traveling more than 250,000 miles from Earth which broke the record set by Apollo 13’s Lovell and his fellow astronauts Jack Sweigert and Fred Haise. This was also the moment when they were closest to the moon, orbiting just over 4,000 miles above the lunar surface.
“On April 15, 1970, during the Apollo 13 mission, three explorers set the record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from our home planet. At that time, over 55 years ago, Lovell Swigert and Hayes flew 248,655 statute miles away from Earth,” Jenni Gibbons at Johnson Space Center’s Mission Control said. “Today, for all humanity, you’re pushing beyond that frontier.”
Wiseman, mission commander, responded that the crew is “honoring the extraordinary efforts and feats of our predecessors in human space exploration. We will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back to everything that we hold dear. But we most importantly, choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long lived.”
From there, the seven-hour lunar flyby commenced, with two astronauts taking turns looking out the windows of the spacecraft, taking pictures (both with the NASA-supplied Nikon cameras on board and with their own smartphones) and reporting back what they saw while another astronaut recorded their observations and a fourth gave a summary of their observations to Kelsey Young, the science officer at mission control.
Shortly thereafter the crew called down to Mission Control requesting that a previously unnamed crater straddling the near and far sides of the moon be named the Carroll Crater, in honor of Wiseman’s wife, Carroll Wiseman, who died from cancer in 2020. “It’s a bright spot on the moon, and we would like to call it Carroll,” Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist on the flight, said, his voice breaking as he made the request.
Houston’s mission control observed a moment of silence while the four astronauts embraced. The crew had also requested that another unnamed crater be dubbed Integrity in honor of their Orion spacecraft. “Integrity and Carroll crater, loud and clear,” a person in mission control confirmed.
The crew stayed laser focused on their task: to observe and report back everything they were seeing about the lunar surface
Koch noted that newer lunar craters, pockmarks on the surface created by meteorites, looked much brighter than they had appeared at a greater distance. “What it really looks like is like a lampshade with tiny pinprick holes and the light shining through,” Koch said. “They are so bright compared to the rest of the moon.”
She then painted a sharp description of Mare Imbrium, one of the largest craters in the solar system, and one of the moon’s newest craters, believed to have been formed 3.85 to 3.92 billion years ago. “It looks completely different than the normal view we have of the near side,” Koch said. “It is the most striking feature of the west view that we had. Entire mountain chains that form its eastern side are very prominent, but they actually stand out more than I’m used to seeing even on the western side, and the whole thing just feels like a big bump. It actually looks like a large healing wound.”
The crew also observed a new view of the 600-mile-wide Orientale Basin, a crater in the middle of the lunar surface that can only be partly seen from here and which has never been viewed this closely by human eyes.
Although the terminator, the dividing line between the dark and light sides of the moon, looks smooth enough from Earth, during one of his turns at the observation window Victor Glover noted that from his view the terminator and its surrounding terrain appeared far more jagged and varied. “There are islands of terrain out there that are completely surrounded by darkness, which indicates some real variation in terrain,” Glover said. “Up to the north, there is a very nice double crater. It looks like a snowman sitting there.”
Young, the science officer, praised Glover’s vivid description, noting that, “Those types of observations are things that humans are uniquely able to contribute, and you just really brought us along with you.”
Peering more closely at the lunar surface with a long lens, Koch observed: “I just had an overwhelming sense of being moved by looking at the moon,” said Christina Koch, the mission specialist of NASA aboard the space capsule. “Something just drew me in suddenly to the lunar landscape, and it became real. The moon really is its own unique body in the universe. It’s not just a poster in the sky that goes by — it’s a real place.”
They counted five flashes on the lunar surface, a series of meteors hitting the moon, which delighted scientists back at Houston’s Mission Control. They also witnessed a solar eclipse and peered into the distance to spy the redness of Mars and Saturn’s orange sphere.
From there, Integrity went through a 40-minute blackout, one of the longest communication blackouts in space travel history, as it orbited around the far side of the moon, coming back online without incident.
That’s not to say there haven’t been any issues on the flight, mainly with the Orion’s brand new space toilet which has been on the fritz since shortly after Artemis II’s launch last Wednesday. Luckily, the astronauts have a backup option, utilizing plastic bags as their forerunners have done since the first launch into orbit with Project Mercury back in 1958.
Day six also included another surprise when it was abruptly announced that President Donald Trump would be conducting a live video chat with crew. Trump, who mentioned that he’ll invite the astronauts to the White House and would like their autographs once they’ve returned, asked the astronauts what it was like being out of touch with the planet for 40 minutes. While the astronauts noted that they were busy continuing their observations, Glover acknowledged “I must say, it was actually quite nice.”
On Tuesday the astronauts are scheduled to rest as they continue their trajectory orbiting the moon which is slated to have them back home by Friday.
