KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The crew of NASA’s Artemis II are set to fly around the moon on Monday.
The Artemis II crew entered the moon’s sphere of influence at 12:40 a.m. Monday, reaching a position 41,072 miles from the lunar surface.
The four-person crew, Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen, is expected to travel farther from the Earth than any previous human spaceflight mission.
This phase of the mission follows a successful course-correction burn that fine-tuned the Orion spacecraft’s trajectory for its path around the far side of the moon.
The mission is projected to reach a maximum distance of 252,760 miles from the home planet. This trajectory would surpass the previous record set by Apollo 13 by 4,105 miles.
During the flyby, the four astronauts will maintain a rigorous operational schedule.
They will work in rotating pairs, switching duties approximately every hour to manage the spacecraft.
Their primary tasks include gathering scientific data and taking high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface.
As the Orion spacecraft passes around the far side of the moon, the crew is expected to experience a temporary communication blackout with mission control.
See more in the video above.
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