Orion's Lunar Flyby: First in 50 Years

0:00Artemis II is hitting that historic lunar fly by this Monday afternoon, April 6th. Though Orion spacecraft with its four-person crew will swing by the moon's surface for about six hours, facing ahead on from the main cabin. They'll snap photos and study 30 key spots on the southern side, like the massive oriental basin nearly 600 miles wide in 3.8 billion years old, and the 400-mile Hertzbrung basin nearby. Here today, around 1.56 pm eastern, the crew already broke the Apollo 13 record for farthest humans from Earth back in 19. 70. By 7 pm, they'll top out at 252,000 miles away. Lunar observations kick off at 2.45 pm, with closest approach at 4,070 miles around 702 pm. Meanwhile, expect a 40-minute comm's blackout as Orion ducks behind the moon starting at 6.44 pm, catching Earth's set and then Earth rise. They'll wrap observations by 9.20 pm during a solar eclipse from their view.

1:03NASA crews on the ground are locked in, briefing the astronauts on science goals right before it all starts. This marks the first human moon fly by since Apollo days, launched April 1st from Kennedy Space Center on a 10-day round trip. No landing, just the gravity-assisted sling back home, using free return trajectory for a Pacific splashdown. As Orion exes the moon's pole to the afternoon, eyes stay glued on those lunar shots dropping soon, paving the way for deeper Artemis pushes ahead. This has been Dallas News Today, powered by AI.