Overview
- The Orion spacecraft is now closer to the Moon than Earth and is set for a Monday flyby that will take the crew behind the far side with about 40 minutes of planned radio silence.
- Christina Koch said the team has already glimpsed parts of the Moon’s far side and called the view simply spectacular, offering rare human descriptions not heard since Apollo.
- NASA trained the four astronauts for more than two years to make real-time geological observations with their eyes, using a set of 15 landmark guides to orient and record subtle color and terrain changes.
- Artemis II will not land, instead looping around the Moon to validate Orion’s life support, navigation, and operations on the first crewed outing of the capsule and the farthest human voyage since Apollo.
- NASA targets a crewed lunar landing in 2028, though experts warn timelines hinge on commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin that are still in development.