Nasa Artemis 2 astronauts close-in on historic moon flyby milestone

Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch looks back at Earth through the window of the Orion spacecraft. Photo / Nasa, AFP

The Artemis astronauts are gearing up for their long-anticipated lunar flyby, including reviewing the surface features they must analyse and photograph during their time circling the moon.

“Morale is high on board,” commander Reid Wiseman told Houston’s Mission Control as the space crew’s work day began.

Upon waking at around 4.35am today NZT, the astronauts were approximately 271,979km from Earth and 178,154 km from the moon, according to Nasa.

The next major milestone of the approximately 10-day journey is expected overnight Sunday into Monday (local time), at which point the astronauts will enter the “lunar sphere of influence” - when the moon’s gravity will have a stronger pull on the spacecraft than Earth’s.

If all proceeds smoothly, as Orion whips around the moon the astronauts could set a record by venturing farther from Earth than any human before.

The astronauts kicked off their day with a meal that included scrambled eggs and coffee, Nasa said, and had woken up to the tune of Chappell Roan’s pop smash Pink Pony Club.

Wiseman, along with fellow Americans Christina Koch and Victor Glover as well as Canadian Jeremy Hansen, are on a historic journey around the moon, which they’re soon due to slingshot around.

It’s a feat Wiseman has dubbed “Herculean” and which humanity has not accomplished in more than half a century.

Glover was due to perform a manual piloting demonstration today to provide Nasa with more data about the spacecraft’s performance in deep space.

After that, the crew members planned to go over their checklist for documenting their experience travelling around the moon.

The astronauts have had geology training to be able to photograph and describe lunar features, including ancient lava flows and impact craters.

They’ll see the moon from a unique vantage point compared with the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s.

Apollo flights flew about 112km above the lunar surface, but the Artemis 2 crew will be just over 6400km at their closest approach, which will allow them to see the complete, circular surface of the Moon, including regions near both poles.

‘Amazing’ pics

The crew has been busy taking photographs including with smartphones, devices Nasa recently approved to take aboard spaceflights.

The space agency has released images from Orion that included a full portrait of Earth, featuring its deep blue oceans and billowing clouds.

Nasa official Lakiesha Hawkins praised the photographs taken by Wiseman, calling them “amazing” during a briefing on Friday.

“We continue to learn all about our spacecraft as we operate it in deep space with crew for the first time,” Hawkins said.

“It’s important to remind ourselves of that as we learn a little bit more day by day.”

The Artemis 2 mission is part of a longer-term plan to repeatedly return to the moon, with the goal of establishing a permanent lunar base that will offer a platform for further exploration.

It’s a highly anticipated journey that demands exacting precision - but there’s still room for the astronauts to live out their childhood dreams of spaceflight.

“It just makes me feel like a little kid,” said Hansen recently, describing the joy of floating.

- Agence France-Presse