The crew, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, are on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back aboard the Orion spacecraft.
Six days into the mission, the astronauts reached the far side of the Moon. They cruised through a rare flyby of the shadowed far side of the moon that revealed a lunar surface under cosmic bombardment.
They travelled about 402,000 kilometres from Earth. No human has gone this far before.
The flyby marked the first time astronauts have returned to the Moon’s vicinity since the Apollo missions more than 50 years ago.
A rare view of the Moon
The crew spent six hours surveying the Moon’s far side. This side never faces Earth. It is usually hidden from view.
From just over 6,500 kilometres above the surface, they observed a heavily cratered landscape. They also witnessed something rarely seen—bright flashes caused by meteors striking the Moon.
Back on Earth, scientists gathered at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to monitor the flyby in realtime.
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The data will help scientists better understand how often the Moon is hit by space debris.
The Orion spacecraft, roughly the size of an SUV, carried the crew safely around the Moon. Signalling a major step forward for human spaceflight, Artemis II is paving the way for future missions.
