NASA's Artemis II crew became the first humans in over 50 years to loop around the moon's far side on April 6, traveling farther from Earth than any before them. The astronauts captured unprecedented views, including close-ups of craters and a unique solar eclipse. They are now heading back for a splashdown off California on April 10.
On April 6, the four astronauts aboard NASA's Orion capsule—Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency—flew around the moon's far side, surpassing the previous human distance record of 400,171 kilometers set by Apollo 13 in 1970. Traveling more than 406,700 kilometers from Earth, they reached within about 7,000 kilometers of the lunar surface, viewing areas never seen by human eyes, such as the Orientale basin. The crew proposed names for two nearby craters: Integrity, after their spacecraft, and Carroll, after Wiseman's late wife. Mission commander Wiseman, speaking during a NASA livestream, urged future generations to break the distance record soon, calling the flight just the beginning of renewed lunar exploration—the first such venture since Apollo 17 in 1972. First photos from the mission, released by NASA, show the far side just 7,000 kilometers away, evoking Apollo 8's famous Earthrise image from 1968. The astronauts alternated shifts at the windows, photographing diverse lunar colors—gray, green, brown, and orange—and marveling at the terminator line where long shadows highlighted terrain details. Victor Glover described it as magical, with 'islands of light' and valleys like 'black holes.' Christina Koch emphasized the moon's reality as 'its own body in the universe.' Jeremy Hansen noted rapid changes in Earth and moon phases, including a crescent Earth setting behind the gibbous moon. Earthshine was so bright they covered a window with a shirt. While out of contact with Houston for 40 minutes, they observed a nearly hour-long solar eclipse, donning glasses to study the sun's corona without atmospheric distortion. The mission's success paves the way for future Artemis landings, with Artemis IV planned for 2028.
