Blasting off from the John F. Kennedy Center in Merritt Island, F.L., on April 1, four astronauts completed a historic mission around the moon, taking them farther than any human has ever been before, according to a New York Times article from April 9.
According to NASA, the Artemis II mission, which lasted 10 days, took the astronauts around Earth twice before leaving Earth’s orbit and completing a lunar fly-by. They completed this trip in the Orion spacecraft, which they renamed the capsule “Integrity” The flight path resembles a figure eight pattern. This lunar fly-by took the astronauts 252,756 miles away from Earth, setting the record for the farthest humans have ever been. The astronauts got to see the far side of the moon and observed parts of its surface that have never been seen before with the human eye, according to a New York Times article from April 6.
The four astronauts on board were Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. Weisman was the commander of Artemis II and completed a trip to the International Space Station, and from December 2020 to November 2022, he was chief of the NASA Astronaut Office. Glove was the mission’s pilot. Before being an astronaut, he was a Navy test pilot, and on this mission, he became the first Black person to fly around the moon. Koch was the mission specialist. Previously, she spent 328 days in space and took part in the first all-female spacewalk. Hansen was also a mission Specialist. He is a Canadian astronaut and air force pilot, according to a New York Times article from April 6.
According to New York Times articles from April 6 and April 10, the crew was able to take images of the geographical features of the moon. These images of smooth plains and other lunar features will be used and studied for future missions to the moon. They named one crater after their ship, Integrity, and one after Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll. On this lunar flyby, the astronauts went through a communication blackout from Earth for about 40 minutes. Once they came back around the moon, they experienced a lunar eclipse that lasted about an hour.
In order to return to Earth’s atmosphere, the crew had to splash down in the Pacific Ocean. At first, the crew module separated from the service module, which powered and propelled the spacecraft. The crew module traveled at a speed of 24,000 miles per hour as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. The Orion capsule has a heat shield which protects the capsule as it reenters. As the craft got closer to Earth, parachutes extended from the ship in order to slow the speed. The astronauts landed in the ocean after a successful mission and a textbook landing, according to a New York Times article from April 10. Overall, this successful mission marks a historic time in the exploration of space.
