Washington DC [US], April 5 (ANI): NASA said Artemis II passed the “two thirds” mark of its trip to the Moon on Sunday during flight day four.
In a post on X, NASA noted the crew aboard Orion reviewed plans to study the Moon during their upcoming flyby and practiced manually controlling the spacecraft.
“There are no words,” astronaut Reid Wiseman wrote on X.
The mission’s astronauts began a historic lunar fly‑around on Saturday to travel farther into space than any humans since the Apollo era. The three Americans and one Canadian are scheduled to reach their closest approach Monday, photographing the lunar far side as they pass. It is the first moonbound crew in more than 53 years.
Artemis II is on track to set a distance record for humans by traveling more than 252,000 miles from Earth before performing a U‑turn behind the Moon and returning home without entering lunar orbit; the current record is held by Apollo 13.
The Canadian Space Agency celebrated Canada’s role as astronaut Jeremy Hansen heads toward the Moon; Hansen is the first non‑US citizen to fly on a crewed lunar mission. “Today he is making history for Canada,” Canadian Space Agency President Lisa Campbell said.
The crew—Jeremy Hansen, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch—are the first people to travel to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. Koch and Glover are the first woman and the first Black astronaut, respectively, to make the trip.
The mission will conclude with a Pacific Ocean splashdown on April 10 and represents a first step in NASA’s plan for a sustainable lunar presence. The agency aims for a crewed lunar landing near the south pole by 2028. (ANI)
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