For the first time in more than half a century, human beings are looking at the far side of the moon. The Artemis II crew — NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 1, 2026, and have spent five days traveling toward the moon aboard NASA's Orion capsule. On Sunday, the crew told journalists in a live talkback from space that they had already glimpsed the lunar far side, an experience Koch described as disorienting and profound.
"The darker parts just aren't quite in the right place," Koch said in an interview with NBC News conducted from the Orion capsule. "And something about you senses that is not the moon that I'm used to seeing." She and her crewmates compared what they were seeing to their study materials before confirming to each other: "That is the dark side. That is something we have never seen before."
The formal six-hour lunar flyby begins at 2:45 p.m. ET on April 6. The peak moment arrives at 7:05 p.m. ET, when the Orion spacecraft is expected to reach its maximum distance from Earth: 252,757 miles (406,773 kilometers), according to Wikipedia's mission summary citing NASA mission planning documents. That will break the Apollo 13 record — set in April 1970 when that mission flew around the moon after its oxygen tank failure forced the crew to abandon a lunar landing — by approximately 4,100 miles.
The Record That Has Stood for 54 Years
Apollo 13's distance record was not intentional. When an oxygen tank in the service module ruptured on April 13, 1970, Commander Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise were forced to abandon the lunar lander descent plan and use a free-return trajectory to loop around the moon and return to Earth. That arc carried them to what was, until now, the farthest point any humans had ever been from their home planet.
The Apollo flights of the 1960s and 1970s flew approximately 70 miles above the lunar surface, according to The Guardian's reporting on the Artemis II mission. By contrast, the Artemis II crew will pass approximately 4,700 miles beyond the moon at their closest lunar approach point, according to the Wikipedia mission profile citing NASA planning documents. That unusual geometry — farther from the moon than the Apollo crews, but traveling in a larger arc — is what enables the mission to break Apollo 13's distance record while not landing or even passing closely over the lunar surface.
During the six-hour flyby window, the Orion capsule will pass behind the moon relative to Earth, entering a communications blackout period of approximately 30 minutes when the moon will block all radio contact between the crew and Houston's mission control, according to NASA's published mission timeline. That blackout, during which the crew will be on their own, will represent the most remote humans have been from Earth since Apollo 17 in December 1972.
Who These Four Astronauts Are and What Records They Are Setting
The Artemis II mission is setting records beyond distance. According to Wikipedia's mission article:
Victor Glover is the first person of color to travel beyond low Earth orbit and near the Moon. Christina Koch is the first woman to do so. Jeremy Hansen, of the Canadian Space Agency, is the first non-U.S. citizen. Reid Wiseman, the mission commander, is the oldest person to travel beyond low Earth orbit on this mission.
The crew of four was announced on April 3, 2023, by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson during his "State of NASA" address.
The Orion capsule they are riding, formally designated CM-003 "Integrity," was manufactured by Lockheed Martin. It has a habitable volume roughly equivalent to a camper van — approximately 316 cubic feet of pressurized living space for four people over 10 days. Koch described it to NBC News as a space where the mundane and the magnificent coexist: "We might go look at the far side of the moon and take in its awesomeness, and then go, 'Hm, maybe I should change my socks.' So this is the dichotomy of human spaceflight."
The Science: What Humans Can See That Cameras Cannot
The moon's far side — sometimes called the dark side, though it receives as much sunlight as the near side over the course of a lunar month — has been photographed extensively by robotic missions. China's Chang'e program has landed on the far side. The Soviet Luna 3 spacecraft took the first photographs of it in 1959. But no human eyes have examined it from close range since Apollo 17 in 1972, and even those missions flew across the near side boundary during their approach and departure phases, spending only limited time viewing the far side terrain.
The Artemis II crew received geology training to photograph and describe lunar features, including ancient lava flows and impact craters, according to The Guardian. They were required to memorize what NASA calls the moon's "big 15" — 15 key features that allow orientation on the lunar surface and its orbital approaches. Among the features they specifically anticipated viewing was the Orientale Basin, a large impact crater sometimes described as the moon's "Grand Canyon" due to its concentric ring structure.
Speaking live to Canadian schoolchildren during a question-and-answer session hosted by the Canadian Space Agency, Koch said: "It's very distinctive and no human eyes previously had seen this crater until today, really, when we were privileged enough to see it." The Orientale Basin spans approximately 950 kilometers in diameter and sits near the western limb of the moon, meaning it was visible to some Apollo crews from extreme angles but never seen directly as Artemis II will view it.
Apollo flights of the 1960s and 1970s flew too close to the lunar surface and at angles that made comprehensive views of the far side terrain difficult. The Artemis II trajectory, which takes the spacecraft much farther above the surface than any Apollo mission, allows the crew to see the complete, spherical surface of the moon including regions near both poles that were too dark or too geometrically difficult to observe from Apollo trajectories, per The Guardian's reporting.
The Mission's Complications: A Broken Toilet and Email Glitches
The larger arc also means the mission is testing Orion's systems under conditions that are genuinely demanding. The spacecraft's toilet malfunctioned after Wednesday's liftoff and has only been working sporadically since, according to The Guardian. Mission control instructed the astronauts to continue using backup urine collection bags while engineers attempt to diagnose the problem remotely. NASA's Debbie Korth, the deputy manager of the Orion programme, said engineers suspect ice may be blocking the line that prevents urine from completely flushing overboard, noting that "space toilets and bathrooms are something everybody can really understand — it's always a challenge."
The crew also reported email glitches during the mission's first days, though NBC News reported those issues were resolved. Koch described the overall flight as smooth despite the technical issues. Wiseman, the commander, told mission control on Sunday morning: "Morale is high onboard."
The crew woke Sunday to the tune of Chappell Roan's song "Pink Pony Club," per The Guardian. Wiseman spoke to his daughters from space, calling it "just the greatest moment of my entire life."
The Context: First Crewed Mission Beyond Earth Orbit Since Apollo 17
Artemis II launched on April 1, 2026, from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center, using NASA's Space Launch System rocket. It is the first crewed flight of the Orion capsule and the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 splashed down on December 19, 1972 — a gap of more than 53 years.
The mission will not land on the moon. Its primary purpose, as NASA has described it, is to test the Orion capsule's life-support systems, navigation, and crew interface under actual deep-space conditions with humans aboard — verifying everything works before the next mission, Artemis III, attempts a crewed lunar south pole landing. NASA is targeting that landing for 2028, according to The Guardian. Artemis III would use a SpaceX Starship variant as the lunar lander to carry two crew members to the surface near the lunar south pole, a region of permanent shadow where water ice has been confirmed.
The Artemis II trajectory is what NASA calls a "free-return trajectory," meaning that if the main engine fails at any point during the lunar flyby, the spacecraft's path around the moon will naturally send it back toward Earth without requiring any additional burns. The trajectory more closely resembles Apollo 13's route than any other prior mission, though the much greater distance from the lunar surface is a fundamental difference.
What Comes After the Flyby
After the lunar flyby concludes, the Orion crew will begin the return journey to Earth. The mission is planned to conclude with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, targeted for April 10, 2026, according to Wikipedia's mission article. At atmospheric reentry, the Orion capsule is expected to reach approximately 25,000 miles per hour — another record, for the fastest reentry of a crewed spacecraft in history.
The data collected during Artemis II will inform modifications to the Orion capsule before Artemis III. The toilet will be fixed. The email system will be reviewed. And the records — for distance, for speed, for representation — will stand until the next mission that surpasses them.
For the first time since 1972, humans have left Earth's neighborhood. Four people are looking at the moon's far side right now, comparing what they see to the study materials they memorized in training. The moon is bigger in their windows than the Earth behind them. Whatever comes next in the Artemis program, this flight is already, by any measure, a genuine moment in the history of exploration.