{"id":40657,"date":"2026-04-04T06:11:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T06:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=40657"},"modified":"2026-04-04T06:11:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T06:11:55","slug":"artemis-astronauts-pass-half-way-point-on-way-to-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=40657","title":{"rendered":"Artemis astronauts pass half-way point on way to Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p>The four Artemis astronauts have passed the halfway point between Earth and the Moon on the way to their planned lunar flyby, NASA said on Friday evening.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou are now closer to the moon than you are to us on Earth,\u201d mission control told the astronauts at around 11 pm (0400 GMT), according to the space agency\u2019s official live broadcast.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  w-full  sm:w-full  media--left  \" data-original-src=\"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/primary\/2026\/04\/041051036fc4653.webp\">\n<div class=\"media__item  \"><\/div><figcaption class=\"media__caption  \">his screengrab from a NASA live broadcast video shows (L-R) NASA astronaut and Artemis II pilot Victor Glover, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Artemis II Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman during a press call as they travel to the Moon in the Orion spacecraft, on April 3, 2026. \u2014AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe all kind of had a collective, I guess, expression of joy at that\u2026 We can see the Moon out of the docking hatch right now, it is a beautiful sight,\u201d said astronaut Christina Koch replied.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  w-full  w-full  media--left    media--uneven  media--stretch\" data-original-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=m3kR2KK8TEs\">\n<div class=\"media__item  media__item--youtube  \"><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The milestone was hit around two days, five hours and 24 minutes after liftoff, according to the NASA official broadcast.<\/p>\n<p>The US space agency\u2019s online dashboard showed that the Orion spacecraft carrying the astronauts is now more than 219,000 kilometres (136,080 miles) from Earth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re halfway there,\u201d NASA posted on social media.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  w-full  w-full  media--left    media--uneven  media--stretch\" data-original-src=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NASAArtemis\/status\/2040248045393043675\">\n<div class=\"media__item  media__item--twitter  \"><span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NASAArtemis\/status\/2040248045393043675\"><\/a>\n    <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The spacecraft\u2019s next milestone will be entering the lunar sphere of influence, set to take place on day five of the flight, according to NASA.<\/p>\n<p>The astronauts \u2014 Americans Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Canadian Jeremy Hansen \u2014 are now on a \u201cfree-return\u201d trajectory, which uses the Moon\u2019s gravity to slingshot around it before heading back towards Earth without propulsion.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1988493\/artemis-astronauts-pass-half-way-point-on-way-to-moon\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The four Artemis astronauts have passed the halfway point between Earth and the Moon on the way to their planned lunar flyby, NASA said on Friday&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}