On April 15th, 1970, Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert set a distance record when Apollo 13 traveled 248,655 miles from Earth. Nearly 56 years later, the crew of Artemis II is expected to break that record by several thousand miles when the Orion spacecraft reaches a maximum distance of 252,757 miles away from Earth later today as it completes its flight around the far side of the Moon.
NASA’s coverage of the lunar flyby begins at 1PM ET today if you want to follow along at home, while the astronauts are expected to set the new distance record from Earth at 1:56PM ET. The trip around the far side of the Moon will take about six hours and include observations of the lunar surface never before seen by humans, as well as surveys to identify possible landing locations for future missions.
The Artemis II crew will lose communications with Earth for about 40 minutes starting at 6:44PM ET as they pass behind the Moon until 7:25PM ET when our planet will come back into view for them. The mission’s itinerary for today includes the following notable events:
In addition to the laser-based Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System the spacecraft uses to transmit science and crew data back to Earth, more traditional radio-based communication systems are still in use. These include the Near Space Network that relies on global ground stations and relay satellites, as well as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Deep Space Network that will restore Orion’s communications with mission control when it reemerges from behind the Moon.
At that time, the astronauts will attempt to replicate the iconic “Earthrise” photo, which was captured during the Apollo 8 mission on December 24th, 1968, over 57 years ago.
Following a 17.5-second “outbound correction burn to refine the Orion spacecraft’s trajectory” that began last night just after 11PM ET, the Artemis II mission entered the Moon’s “sphere of influence” at around 12:41AM ET this morning, making the Moon’s gravity the “dominant force controlling Orion’s trajectory,” according to a NASA update.
Following the trip around the Moon, the Orion capsule will spend the next four days on a return trip to Earth, with NASA targeting April 10th for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego.