The Artemis II mission has reached the Moon's gravitational sphere — DW
The Orion spacecraft, with four astronauts on board, has officially crossed the boundary of the Moon’s gravitational field.
DW reports this, citing NASA.
This means that from now on, the Moon’s gravitational pull affects the spacecraft more strongly than Earth’s gravity, marking a new phase of the historic mission.
At the moment of entering the Moon’s gravitational influence, the capsule was approximately 63,000 kilometers from the Moon’s surface.
At the same time, the distance to the crew’s home planet was about 373,000 kilometers, according to NASA representatives.
The historic event was recorded by specialists at the flight control center at 06:42 Kyiv time on Monday.
The astronauts became the first people in decades to physically experience the transition from Earth’s gravity to the Moon’s.
According to ballistics calculations, within the next few hours, the Orion spacecraft will reach its closest point to the Moon’s surface.
The spacecraft is expected to fly at a distance of about 7,500 kilometers from the mysterious far side of the Moon.
The flight path of the Artemis II mission is designed in the shape of a giant "figure eight," encompassing both celestial bodies.
This route allows the spacecraft to use a gravity assist maneuver to safely return the crew to Earth without wasting fuel.
This flight is the first crewed flyby of the Moon since the end of the Apollo program in 1972. During the maneuver, the crew will travel a record distance from Earth, a distance never before reached by any human in history.
A highlight of the mission will be a unique visual phenomenon that the astronauts will observe directly from their portholes.
At the point of closest approach, they will see both Earth and the Moon at the same time and witness a specific solar eclipse.
During this phenomenon, the Sun will be completely obscured by the Moon’s disk from Orion’s perspective, plunging the spacecraft into shadow.
Such observations have not only aesthetic but also scientific value for studying the solar corona and the Moon’s atmosphere.
As a reminder, the Artemis II crew experienced a communication failure during their flight to the Moon.
The mission will be a crucial step in the Artemis program, which is preparing humans to return to the lunar surface.
The historic Artemis II mission, which sent humans to the Moon for the first time in over 50 years, has already faced its first challenges. During the flight, the crew experienced a brief “radio silence” as well as everyday difficulties that cannot be resolved with a simple call to a repairman.
