Artemis astronauts pass behind moon as humans travel further from Earth than ever before
The 6-hour fly-by is the highlight of Nasa’s first return to the moon since the US space agency’s Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s.
Nasa’s mission control in Houston regained communications with Artemis astronauts travelling around the moon after an anticipated blackout lasting about 40 minutes on April 6, 2026. During the lunar fly-by, astronauts on the US space agency mission also set a record for the furthest distance humans have travelled from Earth. The crew spent more than six hours documenting features of the moon’s surface previously observed mostly through photographs taken by robotic spacecraft. The first crewed mission to the moon in more than 50 years is now returning to Earth on the Orion capsule in a “free-return trajectory” that will take about four days.