SALT LAKE CITY — Astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission are set to make history Monday as they complete a rare flyby, traveling farther from Earth than any humans before them and being the first to witness the “dark side” of the moon.
NASA ambassador Patrick Wiggins, who is based in Utah, said what the crew will see has never been seen before by human eyes. The moment will be one space enthusiasts won’t want to miss, he said.
“They’re going way beyond the moon, and as a result, they’re going to look out and be able to see the whole thing,” Wiggins said. “No one has ever done that before.”
To put the experience in perspective, Wiggins said the moon typically appears about the size of a pea when viewed from Earth. For the crew aboard Artemis II, it’ll look more like a basketball.
Wiggins said since launch, he’s been able to spot Artemis II as a small dot moving through space from his observatory in Utah.
“I’m (thinking), ‘There are people in that dot,’” he said.
According to NASA’s timeline, Artemis II will break the record for the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth.
Around 12:45 p.m. MT on Monday, the crew will begin lunar observations. At approximately 4:44 p.m. MT, the spacecraft will pass behind the moon, cutting off communication with Mission Control and leaving the crew unable to see Earth.
“They’re going to be further away and more isolated than anybody else on the planet until they pop out the other side,” Wiggins said. “And I’m sure they’re going to have stories to tell.”
Wiggins said the break in communication during this mission is different from others.
“It’s going to be much less nerve-wracking than in the days of Apollo 8, because then they had to fire rockets basically to put them into orbit and then fire rockets again to get out of orbit and come back,” he said. “On this one, they call it a ‘free return,’ where basically they’ve already fired the rockets. It’s going to put them in the orbit that takes them around the moon. The moon’s gravity is going to grab a hold of them and fling them back towards the Earth.”
NASA expects to reestablish communication with the astronauts by about 5:25 p.m. MT.
Wiggins said the mission will likely deliver striking images of the moon’s far side, captured with better cameras than those used during the Apollo missions decades ago.
“I am so looking forward to the pictures, because the stuff they’re going to be able to get pictures of and see with the eyeballs, I mean, nobody’s seen with their eyeballs,” he said.
While the flyby is historic, Wiggins said Artemis II is primarily about testing the spacecraft and understanding how deep‑space travel affects the human body and mind ahead of future missions that aim to land astronauts on the moon.
“They took, let’s call it, biological samples of all of the crew before they left,” he said. “And when they get back, they’re going to do the same thing and compare.”
Wiggins also said old habits for the world are still dying hard with an active “space race” between the U.S. and China.
“Of course, the Chinese too,” he said, “their goal is to try to get to the moon also — it’s kind of a little race. The Chinese aren’t saying that like we are, but I’m hearing behind the scenes, they’re definitely saying it.”
After passing the “dark side” of the moon, Artemis II is expected to splash down on Friday, April 10.
Contributing: Mary Culbertson, KSL
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