LATEST: Back to the Moon: Artemis II reaches record distance from Earth and contemplates the hidden side of the satellite
In breaking news, the following story has emerged from the international scene.
“What a majestic sight out here.” The exclamation of Reid Wiseman, commander of the Artemis II mission that completed lunar orbit on April 6, was the closest thing to being left speechless, after the crew of the Orion Integrity spacecraft encountered a landscape that no human had seen in more than 50 years: the far side of the Moon. It is said that no one returns from a trip the same person they were when they left. In the case of the journey of the four Orion astronauts, the common ground is enough for all of humanity. Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen became the people who have traveled the farthest from Earth, 400,000 km at the most extreme point of their lunar orbit, breaking the record of the Apollo 13 mission 56 years ago. To display this YouTube content, you must allow advertising and audience measurement cookies. Accept Manage my options An extension in your browser appears to be blocking the video player from loading. In order to view this content, you must disable it on this site. Try again © France 24 And to make the experience even more memorable, the day included a total solar eclipse not visible from Earth, reserved for the four passengers in the front row of the universe, as well as an endearing moment that left the name of Commander Wiseman’s deceased wife planted in space. When they reached their maximum distance from Earth, the astronauts asked for permission to name two craters they had just discovered. They named the first of them Integrity, after their ship, and when it came time to designate the second, the Canadian Hansen requested permission from Mission Control to name it Carrol, after Wiseman’s wife, who died of cancer in 2020. Also read”We are at the beginning of the path”: will we one day find other lives in the universe? To display this content from X (Twitter), you must allow audience measurement and advertising cookies. Accept Manage my options “Several years ago we began this journey, our close family of astronauts, and we lost a loved one,” Hansen recalled, his voice breaking with emotion. “It’s a bright spot on the Moon, and we’d like to name it Carroll,” he added. The four ended up hugging in tears after the baptism. Read alsoIn images: this is how the Artemis II mission progresses, the Earth “quite small” and the Moon “getting bigger” “Welcome to my old neighborhood” The summit day for the Orion Integrity crew began with a recorded message from an old pioneer. Jim Lovell, one of the members of Apollo 13, had recorded his advice just two months before his death on August 7, 2025. “Welcome to my old neighborhood,” said Lovell, who also orbited the Moon, as part of the Apollo 8 mission. “It’s a historic day and I know how busy you will be, but don’t forget to enjoy the views.” To display this content from X (Twitter), you must allow audience measurement and advertising cookies. Accept Manage my options Everyone heeded the advice. “It blows my mind what you can see with the naked eye from the moon right now. It’s just incredible,” Hansen radioed at the maximum point of Earth’s departure. Along with the rest of the crew, he captured images of the unexplored territory, including one where the Moon and the Earth (the size of a basketball) could be seen in the same frame. Pilot Victor Glover, equipped like his companions with a powerful Nikon camera, but also with his personal iPhone, recorded peaks so bright that they seemed covered in snow, according to what he said. In this image from a video provided by NASA, the Orion Spacecraft, the Earth and the Moon are seen from a camera as the crew and the Artemis II spacecraft travel deeper into space, Monday, April 6, 2026. AP At the same time, dozens of scientists gathered at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston described the observations they were recording, which they combined with years of studying lunar geography. On a stellar plane was the Orientale Basin, an extensive basin with three concentric rings, the outermost of which extends almost 950 kilometers wide. And like someone who buys an “I was here” ornament in the souvenir shop, they also documented the landing points of the Apollo 12 missions in 1969 and Apollo 14 in 1971. Also read Artemis II: details of the takeoff of the first manned lunar mission in half a century A moment alone in the cosmos As planned, when it was hidden by the Moon, the Orion Integrity spacecraft proceeded to disconnect from 40 minutes, a scheduled communications blackout, during which they reached not only the greatest distance from Earth, but also the closest approach to the Moon, at 6,545 km from the surface. When passing behind the satellite, the astronauts lost contact with NASA, since it was a mass of solid rock and regolith, which blocked the encounter between radio waves from Earth and those from the capsule. The moment of reflection was worth it, because Wiseman, Koch, Glover and Hansen were able to emulate the pioneers of Apollo 8, by recording the image of the simultaneous sunset and sunrise on Earth, a shot that in 1968 completely changed the vision of the world. To display this YouTube content, you must allow advertising and audience measurement cookies. Accept Manage my options An extension in your browser appears to be blocking the video player from loading. In order to view this content, you must disable it on this site. Try again © France 24 Read alsoArtemis II: What is the importance of the dark side of the Moon? Houston, we have a problem The perfect day only had one small domestic hassle: the failure of the Orion Integrity capsule’s toilet, which has caused problems since the beginning of the mission. In 1970, when Jack Swigert famously uttered the phrase “okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here,” he was referring to the explosion of an oxygen tank that forced the scheduled moon landing to be aborted. In the case of the Artemis II mission, the failure was a minor incident, which led NASA to ask the astronauts not to use the toilet. “Use the folding contingency urinals,” asked Jenny Gibbons, the crew’s ground contact, from Houston. The bathroom in question cost $23 million, but the breakdown in the urine collection system ended up being just a small anecdote in a historic day. With AP, EFE, Reuters and AFP
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Source: This article was originally published in another language by France 24 – Noticias y actualidad internacional en vivo and has been translated and adapted for our global English-speaking audience. Read the original article here.