HOUSTON — Artemis II astronauts are now more than halfway across the moon and have glimpsed the far side of the moon for the first time.
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In an interview with NBC News from space, NASA astronaut Christina Koch said she looked at the moon through the window of the Orion capsule and noticed that it looked different than what we’re used to seeing on Earth.
“The dark parts just aren’t in the right place,” she said. “And something about you just felt like this wasn’t the moon I was used to seeing.”
Koch said he and his crew, NASA astronauts Reed Wiseman and Victor Glover and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, compared their views with research materials to understand what they were seeing.
“It’s the dark side. It’s something we’ve never seen before,” Koch said.
Wiseman, Koch, Glover and Hansen set out on a 10-day journey around the moon on Wednesday, becoming the first humans to explore the moon in more than 50 years. The astronauts were also the first humans to take off aboard NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule. They are officially on their way to the moon after the spacecraft performed a critical engine burn Thursday evening to push the capsule out of Earth’s orbit.
Wiseman called the flight an “amazing accomplishment” and said the astronauts’ ability to look at both Earth and the moon from the spacecraft was “truly awe-inspiring.”
“Earth is in a near-total solar eclipse. The moon is in near-full daylight, and the only way to get that view is to be halfway between the two entities,” he said.
Koch added that while the astronauts were excited, they were also able to rest and sleep comfortably inside the 16.5-foot-wide Orion capsule, which has a habitable volume roughly equivalent to a camper.
Sleep is one of the many concerns that essentially fill the day of a space traveler.
“Being a human being here is one of the best parts of this mission,” Koch said. “We’re just humans trying to survive. For example, we might look at the far side of the moon and see how amazing it is, and then we might think, ‘Hmm, maybe I should change my socks,’ and start looking around for them. That’s the dichotomy of human spaceflight.”
The four astronauts had time to talk with their families on Friday and Saturday, which Wiseman said was a big highlight.
“It was surreal,” he said. “For just a moment, I was reunited with my little family. It was the best moment of my life.”
The Artemis II crew has been busy since reaching space. In the first hours after launch, they began testing various life support systems on board the Orion capsule. The astronauts had to troubleshoot a few issues, including a glitch with email and a problem with the space toilet, but said the flight was generally uneventful.
