The Artemis II mission continued its lunar flyby trajectory, passing the halfway point between Earth and the Moon, NASA said.
The crew are the first to fly toward the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. They will not land; the flight is a test of the Orion capsule and an early step in NASA’s plans for a crewed lunar landing targeted for 2028 and, eventually, a lunar base.
Mission control in Houston spoke with the four astronauts aboard Orion at about 11:00 pm local time (04:00 UTC) Friday and highlighted their position. “You are now closer to the Moon than you are to us on Earth,” was reported, with NASA saying the spacecraft was about 219,000 kilometers (136,080 miles) from Earth.
The milestone came two days, five hours and 24 minutes after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida. American astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman, along with Canadian Jeremy Hansen, are on a free-return trajectory that will let the Moon’s gravity slingshot Orion back toward Earth without propulsion.
“We all … had a collective, I guess, expression of joy at that… We can see the Moon out of the docking hatch right now; it is a beautiful sight,” Koch told mission control.
As they swung away from Earth, the crew took and NASA released photos of the planet. Commander Wiseman’s images included a curved slice of Earth framed by the capsule window and a full-globe shot showing oceans and swirling clouds, with a green aurora visible near the North Pole. “It was the most spectacular moment, and it paused all four of us in our tracks,” Wiseman said during a TV briefing.
Inside the confined spacecraft, the astronauts have been settling in, noting it’s a bit cold but working to make it a livable space. During early checks they addressed minor issues, including a communications glitch and a malfunctioning toilet. Koch said she was proud to call herself a “space plumber,” adding that a working toilet was probably the most important piece of equipment on board and everyone breathed a sigh of relief when it was fixed.
The crew have also begun daily exercise routines, each spending about 30 minutes exercising to counteract muscle and bone loss in microgravity.
The Orion spacecraft will use the Moon’s gravity to slingshot itself back to Earth without propulsion.
Edited by: Karl Sexton