Four astronauts have successfully completed a seven-hour flyby of the Moon as part of Nasa’s Artemis II mission.
The flight set the record for the farthest distance from Earth travelled by any human, reaching 252,756 miles and surpassing Apollo 13’s distance of 248,655 miles. The trip would see the Orion spacecraft lose contact with mission control entirely as it passed behind the Moon for a nerve-wracking 40-minute period.
The crew came within about 4,000 miles of the Moon’s surface at the closest point, during which they could document terrain features including impact craters, ancient lava flows and surface cracks through photographs. They also noted differences in colour, brightness and texture, which provide clues that help scientists understand the composition and history of the lunar surface.
During the flight, the crew also witnessed an ‘Earthset’, which is the moment Earth drops below the lunar horizon, followed by an ‘Earthrise’ as the spacecraft emerged from the opposite edge...