The Artemis II mission has made history as its astronauts journeyed farther from Earth than any humans before, conducting a lunar flyby and observing the moon's far side in unprecedented detail.
Key Points
- Artemis II astronauts broke the Apollo 13 distance record, travelling the farthest from Earth in human history.
- The Orion spacecraft's crew conducted a lunar flyby, observing the far side of the moon with the naked eye.
- Astronaut Christina Koch described the moon's appearance as browner than seen from Earth, with craters resembling 'lampshades with pinprick holes'.
- The Artemis II mission includes astronauts from NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, marking a significant international collaboration in space exploration.
The Orion spacecraft's four-person crew has traveled farther from Earth than any humans in history.
The astronauts conducted a lunar flyby and also became the first humans to see some parts of the far side of the moon with the naked eye.
NASA Astronaut Describes The Moon
NASA astronaut Christina Koch said that the moon appears to be browner, as opposed to the shades of white and grey seen from the earth.
"Something I just heard from the window team is 'the more I look at the moon, the browner and browner it looks,'" NASA astronaut Christina Koch said.
Christina Koch added that some of the moon's craters look like "a lampshade with tiny pinprick holes,"
"All the really bright, new craters -- some of them are super tiny, most of them are pretty small -- there's a couple that really stand out, obviously, and what it really looks like is a lampshade with tiny pinprick holes and the light shining through," she said.
The Crew Members
The crew includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
The Artemis II mission marks a key step in NASA's plans to return humans to the Moon and advance future deep space exploration.
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