Artemis II arrives in lunar space ahead of its trip around the Moon

Artemis II and its four-person crew have entered the Moon’s “zone of influence,” meaning the spacecraft is more affected by lunar gravity than Earth’s pull. The mission transitioned 39,000 miles to the Moon in four days, six hours and two minutes. The next and most important step will take place tomorrow when the probe will orbit the far side of the Moon, taking humans deeper into space than ever before.

At their peak, astronauts Reed Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen will be 252,757 miles from Earth. This would break the previous record set by the Apollo 13 crew by slightly more than 4,000 miles. He is the first human to cross the lunar boundary since the Apollo 17 moon landing mission in 1972.

The crew spent this weekend preparing for their lunar flight. This included performing manual piloting, reviewing their science objectives for a six-hour observation period, and evaluating their space suits, which are for life support in the event of an emergency, and their return home. But, they also have plenty of time to take in the sights – and those sights are certainly spectacular. In the latest series of images shared by the space agency, astronauts are seen looking at Earth from the windows of the Orion spacecraft.

Orion will approach the moon shortly after midnight on Monday, April 6. Later that day, the crew is expected to reach a point farther from Earth than any human has ever traveled, surpassing the record of 248,655 miles from Earth set by the Apollo 13 astronauts in 1970.

The lunar observing period will begin at 2:45 PM ET, and a few hours later, they will be behind the Moon and will briefly lose communications. The spacecraft’s closest approach to the moon is expected at 7:02 p.m., when it will be 4,066 miles from the surface. According to NASA, “From that distance, the crew will see the entire disk of the Moon at once, including areas near the north and south poles.” The crew will later have a chance to see the solar eclipse “because Orion, the Moon and the Sun will align in such a way that astronauts will see our star disappear behind the Moon for about an hour.” NASA will have coverage of the flyby starting at 1 p.m. ET.

Updated April 7 1:40am ET: The post has been updated with news that Artemis II has entered the Moon’s impact zone.