NASAʼs “Artemis II” astronauts have set a historic record by traveling 406 764 km (252,752 miles) from Earth. This is the farthest humans have ever traveled from the planet.
NASA reported this.
The mission crew broke the previous record set by Apollo 13 in 1970 by approximately 6 601 km (4 102 miles).
NASA has launched an online broadcast of the missionʼs lunar flyby. During the six-hour flight, astronauts will be able to observe the far side of the Moon and a total solar eclipse.
NASA later released a new photo of the Moon from the Artemis II crew aboard the Orion spacecraft, showing the far side of the moon. It is a combined view of the near and far sides of the Moon.
The far side of the moon, as seen in the photo, lacks the large dark spots that can be seen from Earth. They formed early in the Moonʼs history, when it was volcanically active.
Artemis II mission
On the night of April 2, the American space agency NASA launched a manned mission to the Moon “Artemis II". Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket in the agencyʼs history. The missionʼs goal is to test the rocket and spacecraft systems in preparation for a new lunar landing.
Getty Images / «Babel'»
On April 3, four astronauts on NASAʼs “Artemis II” mission left Earthʼs orbit and began their journey to the Moon. This is the first time humans have left Earthʼs orbit since 1972. On April 6, the astronauts entered the Moonʼs gravitational field. This means that the spacecraft is more strongly influenced by the moonʼs gravity than by Earthʼs.
The “Artemis II” mission will last eight days and will conclude with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, where the crew will be met by rescue teams.
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