Four astronauts travelling around the moon sent a heartfelt message before a communication blackout as they passed the dark side of the lunar surface on NASA’s historic Artemis 2 mission
The astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis 2 mission around the moon delivered an emotional six-word message before losing contact with Earth.
On 1 April, NASA launched its 10-day crewed mission to send humans farther into space than ever before. It marks the first human flight to the moon since 1972.
The four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft successfully completed a lunar orbit in the early hours of Tuesday, 7 April, during which they lost contact with Earth for a period. However, the crew left a touching message before communications were severed.
“As we prepare to go out of radio communication… to all of you down there on Earth, and around Earth – we love you from the moon.”
Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of the US and Jeremy Hansen of Canada lost contact with Mission Control for approximately 40 minutes. This was an anticipated communication blackout as they passed over the dark side of the moon.
The crew reported witnessing the features of the mysterious lunar far side, as well as a total solar eclipse from their vantage point.
NASA confirmed that the spacecraft reached its maximum distance from Earth during this mission, “suspected to be” about 252,756 miles, venturing farther from our planet than any human has ever travelled and surpassing Apollo 13’s record set in 1970.
The crew have since re-established contact with Mission Control and are now making their journey back to Earth.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login