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Artemis Astronauts More than Halfway to Moon, Putting Earth in Rearview
The four astronauts will surpass Apollo 13’s distance mark and photograph the lunar far side during a six-hour flyby, NASA said.
- On Monday, April 6, 2026, the NASA Artemis II crew began a historic lunar flyby, positioning the Orion spacecraft to study the Moon's surface from close range.
- Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Jeremy Hansen and Christina Koch launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida last Wednesday aboard a 332-foot rocket.
- Astronauts will observe 30 features across the lunar surface, including the nearly 600-mile-wide Orientale basin, while navigating the 'beautiful dance' of gravitational forces, according to Entry Flight Director Rick Henfling.
- At 1:56 p.m. EDT Monday, Orion will exceed the 248,655-mile record held by Apollo 13, eventually reaching a maximum distance of roughly 252,760 miles from Earth.
- Exiting the lunar sphere of influence on Tuesday, Orion completes the flyby phase and marks a milestone in the Artemis program's broader goal of returning humans to the Moon's surface later this decade.
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40 minutes of radio silence await the astronauts on Artemis II tonight. 40,6777.789 kilometers from Earth. Then they will have circled the moon and looked back
·Stockholm, Sweden
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Late Monday evening Swedish time, the crew of Expedition Artemis II will circle the moon and enter radio shadow. They will then be further from Earth than any human has ever been before.
·Stockholm, Sweden
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources467
Leaning Left87Leaning Right49Center175Last UpdatedBias Distribution56% Center
Bias Distribution
- 56% of the sources are Center
56% Center
L 28%
C 56%
R 16%
Factuality
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