Artemis II has officially arrived in the moon’s neighborhood. At about 12:41 a.m. ET Monday, NASA reported that the Orion capsule crossed into the lunar sphere of influence, the mathematical region where the moon’s gravity outweighs Earth’s. Flight director Rick Henfling called the crossing a significant milestone for the mission. It is the first time astronauts have entered this region since Apollo 17 in 1972.
The boundary is not a physical line but a gravitational threshold: once inside, the spacecraft is primarily under the moon’s pull. The crew sent back an image described as one last look at Earth, showing our planet as a distant crescent framed by Orion’s window.
Artemis II’s four-person crew consists of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Their Monday followed a wake-up message from Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke, a nod to the program’s Apollo heritage and the lineage of the Orion name. On Sunday the astronauts tested newly designed orange launch and entry suits that can provide a breathable atmosphere for up to six days if Orion loses pressurization.
Orion performed a 14-second engine burn Sunday to maintain the planned trajectory; earlier correction burns were unnecessary because the spacecraft had stayed on a near-pinpoint course, Henfling said.
Later on Monday the crew will carry out a lunar flyby that will take them to an estimated 252,760 miles from Earth, the farthest humans have ever traveled and a new record beyond Apollo 13’s 248,655 miles. During the flyby they will conduct roughly seven hours of observations beginning at 2:45 p.m. ET, and NASA will stream live coverage starting at 1 p.m. ET. At the closest approach, around 7 p.m. ET, Orion is expected to come within about 4,070 miles of the moon’s surface.
The crew will document the moon using two Nikon D5 cameras and a Nikon Z9 and will pursue around 30 science targets. Two of the most important are the Orientale basin, a nearly 600-mile-wide impact basin about 3.8 billion years old with preserved geological features spanning the near and far sides, and the Hertzsprung basin on the far side, a roughly 400-mile-wide formation that has been more heavily degraded by later impacts. Observing both basins will help scientists compare how lunar topography changes over time. A software tool will assist the astronauts in selecting and executing their observation plan.
Kelsey Young, lead scientist for Artemis II lunar observations, said the schedule is packed but intentionally flexible. The astronauts are treated as field scientists and are encouraged to adapt their plan if something they see demands a different approach.
Near the end of the observation window, Orion will pass into a roughly hourlong solar eclipse from its vantage point. The sun will begin to be obscured at about 8:35 p.m. ET, darkening the view of the lunar surface and allowing observations of the sun’s corona as well as searches for brief flashes from impacts on the moon. The eclipse will also offer opportunities to image planets that may be visible from the spacecraft, including Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn.
As the first humans to view the moon from these specific vantages on this mission, the Artemis II crew will have unique opportunities for discovery. Their photographs and observations will complement orbital datasets and provide new context about lunar geology, impact history and surface processes as Orion carries them around and beyond the moon on this historic flight.