Astronauts on the Artemis II mission will fly around the moon today — marking NASA astronauts’ first close encounter with the moon in over 50 years.
The four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft as part of NASA’s Artemis II mission will head around the moon at approximately 1:30 p.m. Eastern Monday afternoon.
As a result of the mission, Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen will be the first people to see the moon up close since NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
The group of astronauts will also break the record for how far humans have traveled from Earth, as they fly around the far side of the moon.
The spacecraft is expected to break the record at 1:56 p.m. and will reach its maximum distance of 252,760 miles from Earth at 7:07 p.m., according to NASA.
The previous record, set by Apollo 13 in 1970, saw astronauts reach 248,655 miles from Earth.
Artemis II is set to use the same maneuver – a so-called “free-turn trajectory” – that Apollo 13 did after its “Houston, we’ve had a problem” oxygen tank explosion wiped out any hope of a moon landing.
It will take the astronauts four days to get back, with a splashdown in the Pacific set to conclude their test flight on Friday.
NASA, which has a livestream providing continuous coverage of the Artemis II mission, will start a second livestream at 1 p.m. Monday to show viewers the lunar flyby.
