This fully illuminated view of the moon was taken by the Artemis II mission. The near side (the hemisphere we see from Earth) is visible on the right. Everything to the left of the crater is the far side, which we don’t see from Earth because the moon rotates on its axis at the same rate it orbits us. NASA. NASA’s historic Artemis II mission to the moon is now into its sixth day. The Orion spacecraft and its crew of four are making their long-awaited flyby of the moon and will also enter a trajectory back to Earth. And they have now surpassed the previous record of the astronauts who have traveled the farthest from Earth.. On Sunday, the Artemis II crew received a message from former Apollo astronaut Charles Duke.. “John Young and I landed on the moon in 1972 in a lunar module we named Orion. I’m glad to see a different kind of Orion helping return humans to the Moon as America charts the course to the lunar surface,” Duke said.. On Wednesday, a team of American and Canadian astronauts departed Earth in a 332-foot-tall rocket to do something that humanity hasn’t done in more than 50 years: travel to the moon.. The crew is Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Jeremy Hansen and Christina Koch. It’s also a team of many lunar firsts: Glover is the first Black person to be sent to the moon, Hansen is the first Canadian, and Koch is the first woman. Artemis II helps set the stage for future missions to the moon, deep space and Mars.. We’ll be keeping up with all the latest Artemis II news, so check back here today and throughout next week for updates. Here’s everything you need to know about the mission back to the moon.. When does the Artemis II mission reach the moon?. NASA said the Orion and its crew should be closing in on the moon around 2:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. PT Monday.. You can watch CNET’s livestream of the moon flyby on YouTube, starting at 1:00 p.m. ET / 10:00 a.m. PT.. How to watch the Artemis II moon mission. Takeoff took place on Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. ET / 3:35 p.m. PT from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. You can watch a replay of the livestream on NASA’s YouTube channel, official website and social media accounts. If you’re looking for coverage in Spanish, check out NASA’s Spanish YouTube channel. NASA’s YouTube channel is streaming its official broadcast live throughout the mission.. You can follow along with a livestream from inside the Orion spacecraft, featuring “live views from Artemis II’s Orion spacecraft, without commentary, as it makes its journey around the moon.” The stream is active now and will end just before the Orion’s splashdown into the Pacific Ocean at the conclusion of the mission.. Here’s all the ways you can keep up with the Artemis II mission. NASA. What to expect from the Artemis II moon mission. The Artemis II mission is designed to orbit the moon on a 10-day trip. The astronauts won’t be touching down on the moon’s surface this trip, but they’ll be testi
