NASA’s Artemis II astronauts have been taking in extraordinary views as the Orion spacecraft approaches a historic loop around the moon’s far side, CBS’s Mark Strassmann reports from the Johnson Space Center.
On day five of the test flight, roughly 180,000 miles from Earth, the crew used a digital camera with a 400‑millimeter lens to photograph parts of the lunar far side — the hemisphere we never see from Earth — and were visibly moved by the sight. “It is phenomenal,” astronaut Christina Koch said, adding that the moon they’re seeing from orbit “is not the moon you see from Earth.”
The Orion capsule is scheduled to swing behind the moon Monday night, passing out of radio contact for about 40 minutes as it reaches a new distance record from Earth. Flight controllers and the crew expect that period of radio silence; the astronauts said they planned to use the time to reflect and relax. “We’ll meet them on the other side,” one crew member said.
Commander Victor Glover shared a broader message from orbit, speaking to the fragility and unity of life on Earth and urging people to care for one another. NASA posted his remarks and crew photos to social media; the clip quickly drew millions of views. The crew also passed along holiday greetings, wishing people on Earth a happy Easter as they continue the mission’s test objectives and science observations.