The “Orion” capsule with the crew of the “Artemis 2” mission flew over the far side of the moon and captured images of our satellite that have never been seen before.
April 7, 2026, 5:54 p.mApril 7, 2026, 5:54 p.m
A good half of the nine days “Artemis 2” mission The four-person crew in the Orion space capsule is now behind them. Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen have already broken records – never before people were further away from their home planet – and they saw the moon like no one had ever seen it before. As they flew around the back of our satellite, they approached it to around 6,545 kilometers; They will never come closer to him at any other time in their mission.
The “Artemis 2” crew on board the “Orion” capsule: Reid Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch and Victor Glover (from left).Image: keystone
They were able to intensively observe the side of the moon facing away from Earth for around seven hours. The far side of the moon is the hemisphere that we cannot see from Earth because the moon is our planet because of the bound rotation always facing the same side. Its own rotation is equal to its orbital period, which means that the two rotational movements are coupled to one another.
On Monday, NASA released a photo taken by the crew that shows the moon from the side, with part of the front as we know it on the right and part of the back on the left:
Make new friends, but keep the old.
A new photo captures the Moon’s near side on the right (the side we see from Earth, identifiable by its dark splotches) and its far side on the left. The Artemis II crew are the first to see the far side with human eyes. pic.twitter.com/Z8QaZ6J9iA
— NASA (@NASA) April 6, 2026
The front can be recognized by the dark spots that dominate its surface. These so-called Mare or lunar seas are pools of cooled lava that lie in the Early period of lunar history arose when our Trabant was looking for a… Collision between Earth and the protoplanet Theia, which is about the size of Mars formed and was extremely active volcanically. They cover around 30 percent of the near side of the moon.
The moon, here in higher resolution. Image: IMAGO
To the left – i.e. to the west – of these lava flows is a crater almost 1000 kilometers wide that extends across the border between the front and back: the Orientale Basin or Mare Orientale. According to NASA, the astronauts of the “Artemis 2” mission are the first people to… ever overlook the entire Orientale Basin could. True, the Soviet space probe had Luna 3 explored the far side of the moon for the first time, and later several astronauts from the Apollo missions saw the far side with their own eyes. But it was only the “Artemis 2” crew that saw the Orientale Basin in its entirety. Astronaut Koch said they were all thrilled to experience this privilege.
Which elements of the moon’s surface can be seen and how well depends, of course, to a large extent on the position of the sun, because depending on the incidence of light, craters, mountain ridges and differences in brightness are more or less clearly visible.
Everything to the left of the Orientale Basin in the photo is the Moon’s far side. It is rougher and more cratered than the front, while the dark lunar seas are almost completely absent here – there are only four small ones. The back, which is often referred to in English as the “dark side of the moon”, is actually brighter than the front and has a higher reflectivity (Albedo) on. (dhr)
More about the “Artemis 2” mission:
Artemis Crews names moon crater after astronaut’s deceased wife
Video: watson/nina bürge