Overview
- The Orion spacecraft regained contact with NASA after Monday’s pass behind the Moon and is now on a four-day free-return trip to a planned Pacific splashdown near San Diego on Friday, April 10.
- The crew reached about 406,778 kilometers from Earth and passed roughly 6,545 kilometers above the lunar surface during a six-hour far-side overflight.
- Radio links dropped for about 40 to 50 minutes when the Moon blocked signals to the Deep Space Network, and the astronauts watched a roughly 50-minute solar eclipse as the Sun slipped behind the lunar disk.
- NASA released crew photos that show near- and far-side terrain, and the agency said these are the first human eyes to view the lunar far side directly.
- Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen are flying a 10-day test to prove systems for later Artemis missions that will practice lunar rendezvous and pursue surface landings.