The four astronauts of the Artemis II program, led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), have already gone further than ever before, by orbiting on the dark side of the Moon.
The Artemis II mission, named thus because it is the name of Apollo's twin sister in Greek mythology, took off last April 1, at 22:35 Spanish time (21:35 Canary Islands time) and has already been more than five days in space.
From NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, departed the astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of NASA, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
This past Monday, April 6, at 1:56 p.m. (U.S. time), at 6:56 p.m. Canary Islands time, it exceeded the greatest distance ever navigated by any human. The previous record belonged to the Apollo 13 operation of 1970. The astronauts will return to Earth next Friday, April 10.
On this occasion, none of the astronauts has stepped on the Moon and they are not expected to do so until, at least, 2028 within the framework of the Artemis IV mission.
The objective of the mission is to demonstrate that the critical life support systems of the Orion spacecraft function adequately and will allow to carry out longer future missions.
