Overview
- NASA's four-person Artemis II crew, approaching the Moon on Monday, is poised to surpass Apollo 13's 1970 distance mark and reach about 252,760 miles from Earth during a 10-day test flight.
- The Orion capsule will spend roughly seven hours studying the lunar far side, with windows aimed at about 30 targets for photos and notes on craters, old lava flows, and surface fractures.
- At closest approach, the spacecraft will remain about 4,070 miles above the surface, a high vantage that lets the crew see the full lunar disk, including both poles.
- Communications are expected to drop out for about 40 minutes as Orion passes behind the Moon, after which NASA's Deep Space Network should quickly reacquire the signal.
- Near the end of the pass, the crew plans to watch a total solar eclipse and collect images and data that NASA says will guide life-support checks, navigation practices, and landing plans later this decade.