Artemis Crew Reaches Halfway Point To Moon

WASHINGTON: (Web Desk) – NASA’s Artemis astronauts have officially passed the halfway mark between Earth and the Moon, moving closer to their planned lunar flyby, the space agency confirmed on Friday evening.

Mission control informed the crew—astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen—that they were now nearer to the Moon than to Earth at approximately 11 pm local time (0400 GMT). “We all kind of had a collective, I guess, expression of joy at that… We can see the Moon out of the docking hatch right now, it is a beautiful sight,” Christina Koch said during the live broadcast.

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The milestone occurred about two days, five hours, and 24 minutes after liftoff, with the Orion spacecraft now more than 219,000 kilometres (136,080 miles) from Earth. NASA highlighted the achievement on social media, posting, “We’re halfway there.”

Next, the crew will enter the Moon’s sphere of influence on day five of the flight. They are currently on a “free-return” trajectory, using lunar gravity to slingshot around the Moon before returning safely to Earth without the need for propulsion.