Nasa's Artemis II astronauts have described the powerful emotions they felt while soaring over the moon, capturing eagerly awaited images of impact craters, ridges, and the Earth rising behind the lunar surface. The crew, working in pairs at the Orion capsule windows, photographed parts of the 590-mile wide Orientale impact basin that have never been observed with the naked eye, as well as a solar eclipse.
Astronaut Christina Koch, the first woman to fly around the moon, said she was 'overwhelmed' by the experience. 'I just had an overwhelming sense of being moved by looking at the moon. It lasted just a second or two... something just threw me in suddenly to the lunar landscape and it became real,' she said. She noted bright new craters that shone 'like pinpricks in a lampshade'.
Victor Glover, the first black man to travel beyond low Earth orbit, echoed her sentiments. 'It was very moving to look out the window,' he said, adding that he felt as though he was 'walking around down there on the surface, climbing and off-roading on that amazing terrain'.
The crew swung around the far side of the moon on Monday, cutting contact with mission control for 40 minutes. During that time, Glover said he said a prayer but continued recording scientific observations. 'We were really able to make some of our most detailed observations of the far side of the moon up close,' he added.
The astronauts are now hurtling back to Earth, with a splashdown near San Diego scheduled for Friday at 8.07pm US eastern time. On Monday, they broke the record for the farthest humans have travelled from Earth, reaching 252,756 miles, surpassing Apollo 13's 1970 record. The crew came within 4,070 miles of the lunar surface during their closest approach.
