The crew of the Artemis II mission on the way to the moon.Image: keystone
For the first time in more than 50 years, people are on their way to the moon. They are about halfway there. Now the astronauts are sending images from space.
Apr 04, 2026, 08:28Apr 04, 2026, 08:28
The four astronauts of the “Artemis 2” mission have sent images of Earth for the first time. “You look great, you look beautiful,” said NASA astronaut Victor Glover from the “Orion” capsule.
Glover, his US colleagues Christina Koch and Reid Wiseman as well as the Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen are currently on the way to the moon with the “Artemis 2” as the first people in more than 50 years. They took off from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida on Thursday night (CEST) on board the “Orion” capsule with the “Space Launch System” rocket system.
We’re halfway there.
At the time of posting this, the Artemis II mission is about halfway to the Moon. When the astronauts arrive, they will conduct a lunar flyby and collect scientific observations of the Moon’s surface. pic.twitter.com/Re8dryeX6k
— NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) April 4, 2026
NASA: Artemis crew is “halfway” to the moon
Around 24 hours later, they left Earth’s orbit using a special maneuver. Another 24 hours later, they are now about halfway to the moon. “We are halfway there,” said the US space agency NASA on Friday evening (local time).
According to the US space agency NASA, the Orion capsule is already more than 219,000 kilometers from the earth’s surface. Meanwhile, the astronauts took care of, among other things, numerous scientific tests and training tasks.
Even in darkness, we glow.
In this image of Earth taken by the Artemis II crew, we can see the electric lights of human activity. In the lower right, sunlight illuminates the limb of the planet. pic.twitter.com/kWcjHFvoDM
— NASA (@NASA) April 3, 2026
Mission is scheduled to last ten days
“Artemis 2” builds on the experiences of the unmanned mission “Artemis 1” in 2022. On board the “Orion” capsule, the crew will spend around ten days in space and fly around the moon; a moon landing is not part of it. NASA aims to land on the moon in 2028. “Artemis 2” is intended to create the conditions for this before the capsule is to return to the sea on Earth.
It is the second flight into space for Glover, Koch and Wiseman, and the first for Hansen. Koch is the first woman on board a NASA moon mission, Glover is the first non-white person and Hansen is the first Canadian.
Sources used:
- News agency dpa and afp
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