Artemis II arrives in lunar space ahead of its trip around the Moon

Artemis II and its four-man crew entered the Moon’s sphere of influence 39,000 miles from the Moon, four days, six hours and two minutes into the mission.

Tomorrow the spacecraft will loop around the Moon’s far side; NASA coverage begins at 1PM ET and a lunar observation period starts at 2:45PM ET, followed hours later by a temporary communications blackout.

Closest approach is expected at 7:02PM at 4,066 miles from the surface; from that distance the crew will see the entire lunar disk, including near the poles, and will witness a roughly one-hour solar eclipse during alignment.

At apogee the crew will be 252,757 miles from Earth, surpassing Apollo 13’s 248,655-mile record by just over 4,000 miles.

They are the first humans to cross the lunar threshold since Apollo 17 in 1972; the crew spent the weekend on piloting demonstrations, objective reviews and suit evaluations. Announcement updated April 7 at 1:40 AM ET reporting entry into the Moon’s sphere of influence.