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Artemis II and its four-person crew have entered the Moon's "sphere of influence," meaning the spacecraft is more affected by lunar gravity than the Earth's pull. The transition occurred at a distance of 39,000 miles from the Moon, four days, six hours and two minutes into the mission. The next and most important phase will happen tomorrow when the craft loops around the Moon's far side, taking humans deeper into space than they've ever been before.
At their apogee, Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Canada's Jeremy Hansen will be 252,757 miles from Earth. That will break the previous record held by the Apollo 13 crew by just over 4,000 miles. They're the first humans to cross the lunar threshold since 1972's Apollo 17 moon landing mission.
The crew spent this weekend carrying out preparations for their lunar flyby. That included manual piloting demonstrations, reviewing their science objectives for the six-hour observation period and evaluating their space suits, which are there for life support in the event of an emergency and for their return home. But, they've had plenty of time to take in the views, too — and those views sure are spectacular. In the latest series of images shared by the space agency, the astronauts are seen gazing at Earth through the windows of the Orion spacecraft.
Orion will reach the moon's vicinity shortly after midnight on Monday, April 6. Later that day, the crew is expected to reach a point farther than any humans have traveled from Earth, surpassing the record of
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Luke Grimes leads the Yellowstone sequel.
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We got to share in a rare moment of collective awe this week as four astronauts blasted off toward the moon, beginning a 10-day journey that will take them farther from Earth than any humans have traveled in the last 50 years. It'll still be a little while before they reach their destination — the Orion spacecraft is expected to loop around the moon on Monday — but they've already seen some pretty incredible stuff on the way there. Here's the latest on the Artemis II mission, and other interesting science stories from this week.
Artemis II crosses the halfway pointAfter years of planning, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, are finally on their way to the moon for the Artemis II mission. This test flight is a crucial step in NASA's plans to send humans to the surface of the moon again for the first time since Apollo 17, and the high-stakes launch went off without a hitch on Wednesday.
The Artemis II crew is now more than halfway to the moon, according to NASA. When Orion reaches the moon on April 6, the astronauts will have a six-hour window of opportunity to observe the partially lit lunar far side, which can't be seen from Earth. If you're curious about where exactly the astronauts are at any given moment, you can track the mission by visiting NASA's Artemis Real-Time Orbit website. And, if you just want to see what space looks like from Orion, here's a
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 Apple today shared a trailer for Widow's Bay, a mysterious new "genre-bending" horror-comedy series set to premiere on Apple TV on Wednesday, April 29.
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