HOUSTON — The Artemis II astronauts are now more than halfway to the moon and have caught their first glimpses of the lunar far side.
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In an interview with NBC News from space, NASA astronaut Christina Koch described seeing the moon out the window of the Orion capsule and realizing that it looked different from what she was accustomed to on Earth.
“The darker parts just aren’t quite in the right place,” she said. “And something about you senses that is not the moon that I’m used to seeing.”
Koch said that she and her crewmates, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, compared their views to their study materials to understand what they were seeing.
“That is the dark side. That is something we have never seen before,” Koch said.
Wiseman, Koch, Glover and Hansen launched Wednesday on a 10-day trip around the moon, becoming the first people to embark on a lunar mission in more than 50 years. The astronauts were also the first humans to lift off aboard NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule. They have been officially moon-bound since Thursday evening, when the spacecraft conducted a key engine burn that boosted the capsule out of Earth’s orbit.
Wiseman called the flight a “magnificent accomplishment” and said the astronauts’ ability to gaze at both Earth and the moon from their spacecraft has been “truly awe-inspiring.”
“The Earth is almost in full eclipse. The moon is almost in full daylight, and the only way you could get that view is to be halfway between the two entities,” he said.
Koch added that while the astronauts are excited, they have been able to rest and sleep comfortably in their 16.5-foot-wide Orion capsule, which has a habitable volume roughly equivalent to a camper van.
Sleep is one of various human concerns that inherently occupy their days while journeying through the cosmos.
“Being human up here is one of the coolest things about this mission,” Koch said. “We are just people trying to get by. For example, we might go look at the far side of the moon and take in its awesomeness, and then go, ‘Hm, maybe I should change my socks,’ and try to dig around for a pair of socks. So this is the dichotomy of human spaceflight.”
The four astronauts had time Friday and Saturday to talk to their family members, which Wiseman said was a major highlight.
“It was surreal,” he said. “For a moment, I was reunited with my little family. It was just the greatest moment of my entire life.”
Since reaching space, the Artemis II crew has been busy. In the first hours after they lifted off, they began to test the various life-support systems aboard the Orion capsule. The astronauts had to troubleshoot several issues, including email glitches and problems with their onboard space toilet, but have said the flight has been smooth overall.