By The Opinion
The four Artemis II astronauts entered lunar orbit this Monday and they began a historic period of lunar observation around 2:45 p.m. Eastern Time (18:45 GMT), officially marking the return of man to the Moon since Apollo 17, launched in December 1972.
The NASA mission, which will not land on the moon, will fly over the pure satellite aboard Orion, including today its dark side, the part of the Moon that cannot be observed from Earth.
The crew, the most diverse to travel to the Moon, is made up of three astronauts -Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, who today became the first woman to reach the satellite, and Victor Glover, the first black person to do so-, along with Canadian Jeremy Hansen, the first foreign astronaut on a NASA lunar mission.
Arrival at the pure satellite occurs when the ship goes from being dominated by the Earth’s gravity to being attracted more strongly by the Moon, NASA explained.
Today is a day full of milestones that include breaking the distance record from Earth established by Apollo 13 in 1970 (400,171 kilometers) and fly over the dark side of the Moon.
Likewise, face a loss of communications for about 40 minutes on the dark side of the Moon and reach the closest point to it as well as the maximum distance from Earth, in this case about 406,760 kilometers (252,760 miles).
And just as the astronauts of the Apollo program had the opportunity to see exclusive solar eclipses in the seventiesArtemis II will also have its own, a very long one, which will last about fifty-three minutes and which cannot be observed from Earth.
Despite the delays suffered by the launch of Artemis II, which was finally scheduled for February after other delays of about two years, the mission has met the vast majority of its goals so far, according to NASA officials.
This test mission, with a view to establishing a permanent presence on the Moon, has presented only minor mishaps. such as an initial toilet problem, which according to NASA was overcome and has been able to be used by the crew, and a bad smell that the space agency was investigating until the weekend.
After achieving a flawless takeoff last Wednesday, April 1, from Cape Canaveral (Florida), the four astronauts reached the orbit of the Moon today on their sixth day of travel, which is scheduled to end on Friday with a dive into the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of San Diego (California). EFE
Keep reading:
– Artemis II: astronauts will see a fifty-three-minute voltaic eclipse that will not be visible from Earth
– Artemis II takes off successfully: NASA returns to lunar orbit after more than 50 years
– Return to the Moon: NASA’s historic Artemis II mission continues live
