Artemis II astronaut sends message to family as crew smashes Apollo-era record… before daunting next stage of mission
The commander of Artemis II sent a subtle message to Earth just minutes before he and his crew broke the record set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
The four-person team, including NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, reached a maximum distance of 252,757 miles from Earth at 1:57 p.m., becoming the farthest humans have ever traveled from the planet.
The Apollo 13 crew previously held the record, traveling 248,655 miles from Earth during the dramatic emergency return mission more than fifty years ago.
Wiseman’s family watched this historic moment from the viewing gallery on the ground.
When mission control told him that his two daughters smiled when they saw their father on the big screen, the commander responded by making a heart with his hands; it was a silent sign of love sent more than 250,000 miles into space.
Weisman later radioed NASA’s Mission Control: ‘From the Integrity cabin, as we traverse the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from planet Earth, we do so to honor the extraordinary efforts and achievements in human space exploration that have gone before us.
‘We will continue our journey further and further until Mother Earth manages to pull us back to everything we hold dear, but we must use this moment to challenge this generation and the next to ensure this record is not long-lived.’
The crew also spotted an unnamed crater on the moon and labeled it ‘Carroll’ in memory of Wiseman’s wife, who died of cancer in 2020.
The team of four reached a maximum distance of 252,757 miles from Earth at 1:57 PM ET, becoming the furthest humans have ever traveled from the planet.
Reid Wiseman’s family watched the historic moment from the ground viewing gallery. When mission control told him his two daughters were smiling when they saw their father on the big screen, the commander responded by making a heart shape with his hands.
The Artemis II milestone is just one of several historic moments expected on Monday; Astronauts are set to become the first people in decades to image the far side of the Moon with the naked eye, bringing them within 6,500 kilometers of the lunar surface.
Later in the mission, the crew will also witness a rare solar eclipse from lunar orbit that will begin at 8:35 pm ET and last for about an hour.
Capsule Communicator Jenni Gibbons radioed the Artemis II crew from Mission Control: ‘On April 15, 1970, during the Apollo 13 mission, three explorers broke the record for the farthest distance ever traveled by humans from our home planet.
‘At that time, more than 55 years ago, Lovell, Swigert and Haise flew 248,655 statute miles from Earth. Today you are going beyond this limit on behalf of all humanity.’
NASA Flight Director Brandon Lloyd and others also marked the milestone by sending an email to the crew containing ‘the longest person-to-person message ever sent in human history’.
The crew is now heading towards the far side of the moon, the lunar hemisphere that constantly faces Earth.
Unlike the familiar nearside, it has rugged, cratered terrain with a thicker crust and fewer dark volcanic plains.
Immediately after breaking the Apollo record, Hansen went on the radio to announce that two new craters had been named.
Artemis II’s commander, Reid Wiseman, is a single parent to daughters Ellie and Katherine. They lost their mother Carroll to cancer in 2020
Weisman lost his wife Carroll (left) to cancer in 2020
The crew shared images from space while traveling towards the moon. The team took this photo on April 5
One crater has been named ‘Integrity’, inspired by the Orion capsule the crew used during the historic mission.
“If you look at Orientale from the far side and draw a straight line towards Ohm on the far side, there’s a relatively unnamed crater in the middle, and we’d like to propose calling it Integrity,” Hansen said.
But the most emotional moment came when Hansen announced the name of a second crater. ‘This is a bright spot on the Moon and we want to name it Carroll,’ he said.
Wiseman and Koch were seen wiping away tears.
While the announcement brought astronauts to embrace, mission control in Houston fell silent in a rare moment of reflection.
The crew hugged each other after Hansen told Mission Control about the new crater, named Carroll in memory of Wiseman’s wife, who passed away in 2020.
The Artemis II crew launched April 1 inside a capsule atop the Space Launch System rocket
This is a developing story… More updates to come.
