Astronauts on NASA’s Artemis 2 mission around the moon conveyed a heartfelt message in six words before losing contact with Earth for approximately 40 minutes.
NASA initiated a 10-day crewed mission on April 1 to propel humans the farthest into space, marking the first human flight to the moon since 1972.
The four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft completed a successful journey around the moon on the early hours of Tuesday, April 7, where they experienced a temporary loss of communication with Earth. Prior to the communication blackout, the crew expressed their love to those on Earth and around it.
The astronauts, including Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch from the US, and Jeremy Hansen from Canada, encountered a communication blackout for about 40 minutes as they traversed the dark side of the moon.
During the blackout, the crew observed features of the enigmatic lunar far side and witnessed a total solar eclipse from their vantage point.
NASA confirmed that the spacecraft achieved its furthest distance from Earth during this mission, estimated to be around 252,756 miles, surpassing any previous human space exploration and breaking the record set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
After re-establishing contact with Mission Control, the crew has commenced their journey back to Earth.
