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The Artemis astronauts have taken in sights of the Moon never before seen by human eyes, crew members reported on Sunday as their spacecraft crossed the two-thirds mark on their journey to a long-anticipated lunar flyby.<\/p>\n
As the astronauts went to bed in the early hours of Sunday, closing out the fourth day of their 10-day mission, they were nearly 200,000 miles (321,869 kilometres) from Earth and 82,000 miles from the Moon, according to Nasa\u2019s online dashboard.<\/p>\n
The US space agency published on Sunday an image taken by the Artemis crew, showing a distant Moon with the Orientale basin visible.<\/p>\n \n <\/a>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cThis mission marks the first time the entire basin has been seen with human eyes,\u201d Nasa said. The massive crater, which resembles a bullseye, had been photographed before by orbiting cameras.<\/p>\n Speaking to Canadian children live from space, astronaut Christina Koch said the crew was most excited to see the basin \u2014 sometimes known as the Moon\u2019s \u201cGrand Canyon\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very distinctive and no human eyes previously had seen this crater until today, really, when we were privileged enough to see it,\u201d Koch said during the question-and-answer session hosted by the Canadian Space Agency.<\/p>\n The next major milestone is expected overnight on Sunday into Monday, at which point the astronauts will enter the \u201clunar sphere of influence,\u201d where the Moon\u2019s gravity will have a stronger pull on the spacecraft than Earth\u2019s.<\/p>\n If all proceeds smoothly, as the Orion spacecraft whips around the Moon, the astronauts \u2014 Americans Koch, Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover, along with Canadian Jeremy Hansen \u2014 could set a record by venturing farther from Earth than any human before.<\/p>\n Nasa said the Artemis crew has completed a manual piloting demonstration and reviewed their lunar flyby plan, including reviewing the surface features they must analyse and photograph during their time circling the Moon.<\/p>\n Earlier, the astronauts kicked off their day with a meal that included scrambled eggs and coffee, Nasa said, and had woken up to the tune of Chappell Roan\u2019s pop smash \u201cPink Pony Club\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cMorale is high on board,\u201d commander Reid Wiseman told Houston\u2019s Mission Control Centre as the space crew\u2019s work day began.<\/p>\n \n <\/a>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n The father of two girls was in high spirits in part because he had the chance to speak with his daughters from space.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re up here, we\u2019re so far away, and for a moment, I was reunited with my little family,\u201d he told a live press conference. \u201cIt was just the greatest moment of my entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a feat Wiseman has dubbed \u201cHerculean\u201d and which humanity has not accomplished in more than half a century.<\/p>\n The astronauts have had geology training in order to be able to photograph and describe lunar features, including ancient lava flows and impact craters.<\/p>\n They\u2019ll see the Moon from a unique vantage point compared with the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s.<\/p>\n Apollo flights flew some 70 miles above the lunar surface, but the Artemis 2 crew will be just over 4,000 miles at their closest approach, which will allow them to see the complete, circular surface of the Moon, including regions near both poles.<\/p>\n The Artemis 2 astronauts have already seen brand-new perspectives.<\/p>\n \u201cLast night, we did have our first view of the moon\u2019s far side, and it was just absolutely spectacular,\u201d Koch, the mission specialist, said during a live interview from space.<\/p>\n John Honeycutt, manager of Nasa\u2019s Space Launch System programme, shared at a briefing on Saturday a new image transmitted by the astronauts.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the far left, you can see features of the Moon that have never been seen by human eyes until yesterday,\u201d Honeycutt said, explaining that only robotic imagers had previously \u201cseen\u201d that region.<\/p>\n The Artemis 2 crew has been busy taking photographs, including with smartphones, devices Nasa recently approved to take aboard spaceflights.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/a>Flyby plans reviewed<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/a>Never before seen<\/h2>\n