Artemis II astronauts vanished behind the Moon after chilling words | US | News
As the Artemis II mission reached its most dramatic moment, four astronauts disappeared behind the Moon, cut off from Earth and beyond the reach of Mission Control for the first time in more than half a century.
The blackout ended a six-hour flight in which the crew made history simply by looking out the window and became the first people to see the far side of the moon in person before reestablishing contact after 40 minutes of radio silence. What they saw just before this history-making moment clearly surprised them.
What astronauts witnessed
Geometric patterns etched into the surface, sinuous formations the crew called “squiggles” and an unexpected palette of greens and browns were among the features that greeted NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen as the Orion capsule navigated terrain no human had ever seen at close range before.
Koch described the newly formed craters that dotted the ancient surface in a way that clung to it.
“All of the really bright new craters, some super small, most quite small, there’s a couple that really stand out and what’s really visible is a lampshade with little pinhole holes and light shining through,” he told Mission Control.
Glover offered his own explanation of what was beyond the windows.
“There’s a beautiful pair of craters in the north. It looks like a snowman sitting there,” he said. “There’s a hole at the south end. It’s just blackness and a wall of brightness. It’s like there’s a giant hole there.”
He added that the wider viewing angle made it feel like looking at “an island of land surrounded by complete darkness.”
The terrain the crew passed through bears little resemblance to the Moon most people know. The near side (the face permanently visible from Earth) is characterized by vast dark volcanic plains, while the far side is ancient, heavily scarred and structurally thicker, its crust bearing the scars of billions of years of uninterrupted bombardment, the Daily Mail reported.
Into the silence
The radio link between Orion and Earth’s ground stations depends on an unobstructed line of sight. That line broke the moment the moon came between the spacecraft and every antenna on the planet. Mission experts call this signal loss; a statement that underemphasizes the isolation it represents.
The four crew members, who had no live connection to Houston, managed this phase on autopilot, guided by systems programmed before the blackout began. Ground crews were left watching the clock, counting the moment until Orion eventually emerged from behind the Moon and transmissions resumed, about 40 minutes after contact was lost.
Before silence fell, Glover delivered a fitting farewell speech, invoking the teachings of Jesus, including the instruction to love your neighbor as yourself, before signing off on words that carried a double meaning.
“See you on the other side,” he said.
The power outage brings to an end a mission that has already rewritten the history books. At 1:57 p.m., Orion carried its crew 252,757 miles from Earth, a distance no human has ever reached before. The record falling belonged to Apollo 13, whose crew was pushed 248,655 miles from home during a desperate emergency return in 1970; This record stood for 55 years.
When Orion emerged from behind the Moon as scheduled and radio contact was lost again, the 40-minute power outage that had left Mission Control standing by in silence ended.
Mission specialist Christina Koch was the first to speak.
“Houston, Integrity, communication control,” he said. “It’s nice to hear from Earth again.”
