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Earth's gravity is history“Artemis 2” astronauts now feel the power of the moon!
The four-person crew of the “Orion” space capsule is approaching its destination.
picture alliance / Hans Lucas / Romain Costaseca
On their flight around the moon, the “Artemis 2” crew faces a special event. From their perspective, the sun will disappear behind Earth's satellite. In addition, the four astronauts could be further away from Earth than any human has ever been before.
The four astronauts of the “Artemis 2” mission have reached the moon’s sphere of influence. “Orion” has reached the point where the moon’s gravity has a stronger effect on the spacecraft than that of the Earth, the US space agency Nasa said.
The crew – consisting of US astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Reid Wiseman as well as Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen – are currently the first people on their way to the moon in more than 50 years. It is the second flight into space for Glover, Koch and Wiseman, and the first for Hansen. Koch is the first woman on board a NASA lunar mission, Glover is the first black person and Hansen is the first Canadian.
They took off from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida on Thursday night (CEST) on board the “Orion” capsule with the “Space Launch System” rocket system. Around 24 hours later, they left Earth orbit using a special maneuver.
“Artemis 2” builds on the experiences of the unmanned mission “Artemis 1” in 2022. The flight path of “Artemis 2” resembles a figure of eight around the Earth and the Moon. The crew is now supposed to fly around the moon and land back on Earth in the sea on Saturday (CEST).
In the next few hours, the spacecraft is expected to come closest to the moon – about 7,500 kilometers behind the side facing away from Earth. From there, the astronauts can then see the Earth and the moon at the same time – and even a solar eclipse, in which the sun disappears behind the moon from the perspective of “Orion”.
They could also move further away from the earth than humans have ever done before. The previous record was set by the crew of the “Apollo 13” mission in 1970 with around 400,171 kilometers.
Sources used: hny/dpa
