Orion's Lunar Flyby: A Step Towards Deep Space

0:00It's April 5th. This is Dallas News Today, AI-powered stories from your city. I'm Corey with the story. Artemis II is blasting through space on its 10-day trip to the moon and back. The first crew test of NASA's Orion spacecraft for D-space flights. It lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1st, 2026, and right now the crew is more than two-thirds of the way to the lunar surface. Earlier this week, mission specialist Christina Koch and Jeremy Hanson took the controls on Saturday for key tests and maneuvers, keeping everything on track. The big moment hits Monday, April 6th, with a six-hour lunar fly-by starting at 2.45 pm, when Orion's main window points straight at the moon. Folks back home are glued to the action, with NASA's Artemis real-time orbit website letting anyone track the spacecraft live plus a video feed from. Inside Orion, though, it might go blue or black during signal dips or dark stretches.

1:00NASA's lunar science team just sent the crew a hit list of moon features to snap and steady during the fly-by, ramping up the data hall for future. Missions. From here, Orion's link shots passed the moon's far side on a free return path, looping home with gravity's help for a fiery reentry and Pacific. Splashdown by day's end, paving the way for Artemis III's landing push.