Have you ever seen the far side of the moon?
NOTE: It is not known if the crew was listening to Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” when this image was captured.
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What is it?
On April 6, the crew onboard NASA’s Artemis 2 mission’s Orion spacecraft were in the middle of their mission and flying by the moon.
This mission, which launched on April 1 and splashed back down to Earth on April 10, sent a crew of four astronauts on a journey around the moon and back. This was the first crewed mission to the moon since NASA’s final Apollo mission in 1972, over 50 years ago.
On their incredible journey, the Artemis 2 crew went farther from Earth than humans have ever gone before — a whopping 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers) miles from home.
Why is it incredible?
During their lunar flyby, the crew actually flew behind the moon, allowing them to see its mysterious far side.
The moon is tidally locked in our orbit. This means that the moon has a side that is always facing us (the near side) and one that is perpetually facing away (the far side). The far side is sometimes known as the “dark side of the moon,” which is inaccurate, because sunlight bathes it as well.
As the Orion capsule flew behind the moon, communications between Earth and the crew actually stopped for about 40 minutes.
This photograph is a beautiful insight into those minutes of quiet, when the crew observed what we so rarely are able to see.