First image.
Posted on 04/06/2026 4:30:24 PM PDT by Libloather
Artemis II began its historic flyby of the moon Monday in what is the mission’s showstopper event — giving its crew and Earthlings back home their first glimpses ever of parts of the lunar dark side.
The capsule began the flyby around 2:45 p.m. ET, and will spend just over six hours arcing around the moon with its windows pointed toward the far side of the lunar surface.
All four crew members will become the first people in history to see certain swaths of the far side — since most it remained in shadow when the Apollo missions orbited the moon over 50 years ago.
The Apollo flights were also so close to the surface that their range of sight was limited.
But Artemis II’s flyby is different — the capsule will stay between 4,000 and 6,000 miles from the lunar surface, which will allow the crew to see the entirety of the far side under the full light of the sun.
The moon will appear about the size of a basketball held at arm’s length to the crew looking out the Orion capsule’s windows.
It was also about three to four times larger than Earth as the flyby began, the crew reported.
Artemis II’s astronauts will spend the flyby photographing and making in-person observations of the far side as part of their research.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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That's not correct...
First image.
Didn’t the “Aliens” guy say there were vast fleets of UFO’s on the “dark side” of the Moon?
If you had asked me in 1969 did I think that someday well into the 21st century would America be able to orbit the moon and look at it from a spaceship window, I would have said YES!, and now here we are, I lived to see it.
Did they see Pink Floyd?
This is true.
😂😂
Rapid progress w Muslim outreach to boot!
The detail is amazing. Cameras sure have come a long way since the ‘70s.
I will take note of it.
And for full disclosure, I do not personally recall having seen these areas of the moon before... ;)
How long before it is claimed to be fake?
John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band singing “On the Dark Side”
Matter of fact.... yes (#11).
There’s a moon in the sky.
It’s called the moon.
It’s the side that’s hidden from earth, it’s not a “dark side.”
Maybe the ChiComs forgot to take their lens cap(s) off?
I watched it live in 1969 from the lobby of The Alamo Hotel in downtown Austin with my then girlfriend and later first wife.
It was exciting to say the least.
False. The Clementine spacecraft mapped the entire surface of the Moon in 1994. But we’re desperate for a “first” anything.
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