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On the sixth day Of its mission, Artemis II closes On the far side of the moon. At the same time, Historical journey It was not without wonderful and strange stories, from the pictures and videos it contains Four crew members I shared it with the world beyond the inevitable Unexpected events– Including a difficult toilet situation.
A few hours before the crew starts flying around the moon, here’s how it goes Artemis II.
When will they reach the far side of the moon?
While Artemis II won’t actually land on the moon (it won’t happen). Happens until Artemis IV), which does not make this task any less urgent. Once the Artemis 2 astronauts finish flying over the dark side of the moon, they will have the historic distinction of being the humans who have traveled the furthest from Earth.
They will also test all systems needed for future lunar missions, validating life support, navigation, spacesuits, communications, and other human operations in deep space.
But when are they supposed to get that far? First, the Orion capsule reached what is known as the Moon’s “sphere of influence” on Sunday night. This is the point at which the Moon’s gravitational force is stronger than the Earth’s gravitational force.
At present, Orion orbits the Moon. Once the capsule reaches the dark side of the Moon, about 7,000 kilometers from the surface, communications with Earth will be cut off. For six hours, they will be able to see the far side of the Moon, something no human has ever seen with their own eyes before – not even the Apollo astronauts, as this area of the Moon has always been too dark or difficult for them to access.
The six-hour flyby on the dark side of the moon is expected to begin on Monday, April 6 at 2:45pm EST and 7:45pm London time.
The capsule will then use the Moon’s gravity to propel itself back to Earth. The “Splash Down” mission is scheduled to be launched, when the astronauts reach Earth, on April 10 in the Pacific Ocean, not far from the California coast, which is the tenth day of the mission.
Remember, you can follow NASA’s Artemis II mission live stream Official channels.
What happened so far?
Since its successful April 1 launch from Kennedy Space Center, the Artemis II crew has shared many stunning images, like the one featured in this post, which shows mission specialist Christina Koch looking down at Earth through one of Orion’s main cabin windows.
This stunning photo of Earth, taken on April 2, has gone viral on social media, in reference to the famous phrase “Blue marble“Photo taken by Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972.
A view of Earth taken by astronaut Reed Wiseman from the window of the Orion spacecraft after completing a translunar injection maneuver on April 2, 2026.Photograph: Reed Weisman/NASA/Getty Images