Reuters. Astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission undertook a flyby of the moon on Monday (April 06) cruising along a path in the Moon's gravitational sphere of influence that will soon take them over the shadowed, lunar far side.
The four astronauts have now reached farther than any human has been from Earth.
After they broke the record held by the Apollo 13 crew for 56 years, the crew took the opportunity to name several landmarks on the moon, including one in honor of the late wife of Artemis II commander, Reid Wiseman.
Carroll Wiseman passed away in 2020 after a long battle with cancer.
Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen grew emotional as he made the announcement and was embraced by Reid Wiseman and the other two crew members.
Hansen and NASA astronauts Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch will sail around the moon's far side, witnessing it from roughly 4,000 miles above its darkened surface as it eclipses what will appear to be a basketball-sized Earth in the distant background.
The milestone is a climactic point in the nearly ten-day Artemis II mission, the first crewed test flight of NASA's Artemis program.
