Christina Koch was first to speak after Artemis II emerged from behind the Moon, ending a 40-minute blackout as the mission broke Apollo 13’s 55-year distance record.
Orion reappeared from behind the Moon as planned and radio contact was restored – bringing an end to a 40-minute blackout that had left Mission Control waiting in silence.
Mission specialist Christina Koch was first to speak.
“Houston, Integrity, comm check,” she said. “It is so great to hear from Earth again.”
With no signal available on the lunar far side, the capsule had been operating entirely independently. Computers aboard Orion fired the engines at exactly the right moment to swing the spacecraft onto a homeward path – a procedure carried out beyond the reach of any ground controller.
When the connection returned, relief swept through Mission Control. Engineers observed data beginning to fill their screens; moments later, Koch’s voice came through.
Uncertainty is an ever-present factor in crewed spaceflight – regardless of how routine a mission may seem, nothing is guaranteed until the crew is heard from once more. Family members who had gathered to observe spent the communications blackout reviewing briefing documents, deliberately keeping their focus away from the clock.
A backlog of stored information is now being transmitted to Earth, reports the BBC. Everything Orion captured on the far side – sensor readings, flight data, imagery – is being downloaded via NASA’s Deep Space Network, with mission teams set to spend the coming days examining the findings.
Amongst the images already arriving are what seem to be the clearest photographs ever captured of the Moon’s far hemisphere. The crew lost no time in marking the milestone, before swiftly returning to the task at hand.
Prior to the communications blackout, Glover delivered what proved to be a poignant farewell – drawing on the teachings of Jesus, including the call to love your neighbour as yourself, before signing off with words that carried a deeper resonance.
‘We will see you on the other side,’ he said.
The blackout rounded off a mission that has already made history. At 1.57pm ET, Orion carried its crew to 252,757 miles from Earth – a distance no human had ever previously reached.
The record that was broken had belonged to Apollo 13, whose crew was pushed to 248,655 miles from home during their harrowing emergency return in 1970 – a record that had remained unbeaten for 55 years.



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