After its successful launch Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA's Artemis II mission continues its trajectory toward the Moon, located approximately 400,000 kilometers from Earth. The Orion spacecraft is scheduled to fly by the Moon on Monday, as part of a crewed mission of about ten days led by Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen.
This Sunday, NASA indicated on X that Artemis II had reached "two-thirds" of the journey to the Moon. The translunar injection maneuver carried out on Thursday had placed Orion on a trajectory that should take it into the lunar sphere of influence on Sunday.
Christina Koch speaks of a "different" Moon
From the Orion capsule, Christina Koch gave a testimony on the approach to the far side. "We were able to see the far side of the Moon for the first time, and it was simply spectacular.""The celestial body then appeared to her," the American astronaut stated. " different ", in what also constitutes a symbolic milestone for the woman who, on the occasion of this flight, becomes the woman who has travelled the furthest in space.
"This wasn't the Moon we're used to. So we brought out our lunar tracking data."continued Christina Koch. “We matched the images and said to ourselves, ‘This is the hidden side. This is something we’ve never seen before.’”
Areas of the far side never before directly observed by humans
NASA explains that the Artemis II astronauts could be the first humans to directly observe, with the naked eye, certain portions of the far side of the Moon. The agency also anticipates that the crew will take high-resolution photographs and make scientific observations of areas never before seen directly by humans during their flyby on April 6.
This perspective differs from that of the Apollo missions. NASA points out that Orion will pass within approximately 4,066 miles (just over 6,500 kilometers) of the lunar surface, compared to about 70 miles for Apollo. This will allow the crew to take in the entire lunar disk at a glance, including regions near the poles. This configuration offers a panoramic field of view superior to that enjoyed by the Apollo astronauts more than half a century ago.
A crucial test mission for the future of the Artemis program
Artemis II is scheduled to take the crew more than 252,000 miles (just over 400,000 kilometers) from Earth, surpassing the record set by Apollo 13, before a return without a lunar landing and a splashdown planned for April 10 off the coast of San Diego. This mission, NASA's first crewed expedition to the Moon in over 53 years, primarily serves as a test flight for the Orion spacecraft's systems and for the United States' strategy for a sustainable return to the Moon.
