The astronauts of the "Artemis 2" flight reached halfway between the Earth and the Moon, as NASA confirmed on Saturday on its social media accounts. The Orion spacecraft is now at a distance of 219,000 kilometers from the moon. A NASA official said: “We see the Earth as a small blue ball through the eyes of the crew. We feel that we are suddenly with them.”
Published on: 04/04/2026 - 12:23 Last updated: 04/05/2026 - 15:53
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The "Artemis 2" flight reached the halfway point between the Earth and the Moon on Saturday, as NASA confirmed on its social media accounts. The four astronauts continue to approach the moon in preparation for orbiting it in the coming days, in the first mission of this kind since 1972.
Tracking data provided by the agency on the Internet showed that the Orion spacecraft is at a distance of 219,000 kilometers from Earth, and a similar distance must be traveled to reach the vicinity of the moon.
“We see the Earth as a little blue ball.”
The astronauts (Americans Christina Cook, Victor Glover, and Reed Wiseman, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen) document their time in space themselves using their smartphones and cameras, and NASA broadcasts live scenes of them.
A NASA official said on Friday: “We see the Earth as a small blue ball through the eyes of the crew. We feel that we are suddenly with them.” For their part, Jeremy Hansen said: “Here we are all nailed to the windows,” and Christina Cook: “Nothing can prepare a person for the feelings sweeping through him at this moment.”
Read also: Artemis 2: What comes after the moon?
America before China?
The "Artemis 2" mission aims to ensure complete preparations before the Americans return to the surface of the moon, with the aim of establishing a lunar base in preparation for the planned trips to Mars.
The American space agency aspires to carry out a manned landing on the moon in the year 2028, that is, before the end of Donald Trump’s era, and before the date set by the Chinese for their landing on the moon.
No human being has seen the Earth from this distance since the Apollo program stopped in 1972. Manned flights were limited to near-Earth orbit, especially to the International Space Station at an altitude of 400 kilometers.
The moon is a thousand times farther...
As for the moon, it is a thousand times farther away, and it takes several days to reach it. On this trip, astronauts will not land on its surface, but will orbit around it and see the hidden side of it, before returning to Earth on April 10.
The hidden side of the moon is the one that is not visible from the Earth, as one side of it always remains facing the Earth during its rotation around it.
France 24 / AFP
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