Astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis 2 mission around the moon delivered an emotional six-word message before losing communication with Earth.
On April 1, NASA launched its 10-day crewed mission to send humans farther into space than ever before. It marks the first human flight to the moon since 1972.
The four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft successfully completed their journey around the moon in the early hours of Tuesday, April 7, during which they lost contact with Earth for a period. However, the crew left a heartfelt message before communications were severed.
Victor Glover said: « As we prepare to go out of radio communication… to all of you down there on Earth, and around Earth – we love you from the moon. »
Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of the US and Jeremy Hansen of Canada lost contact with Mission Control for approximately 40 minutes — an anticipated communications blackout as they passed behind the dark side of the moon.
The crew reported witnessing features of the enigmatic lunar far side, as well as a total solar eclipse from their vantage point.
NASA confirmed that the spacecraft reached its greatest distance from Earth during the mission, « suspected to be » around 252,756 miles — venturing further from our planet than any human in history and surpassing Apollo 13’s record set in 1970.
The crew has since re-established contact with Mission Control and has begun its journey back to Earth.
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