Four astronauts, who continued their space travel within the scope of NASA’s Artemis II mission, officially entered the “domain of influence” of the Moon, where the gravitational force of the Moon becomes more dominant than that of the Earth. This development is considered one of the most critical turning points in the historic lunar flight mission.
The crew completed this transition when they reached a distance of approximately 62 thousand 800 kilometers from the Moon. From this point on, the Orion capsule began to accelerate under the gravitational pull of the Moon instead of the Earth.
The crew’s next big goal will be to move to the dark side of the Moon in the coming hours. With this move, astronauts will set a new record by reaching deeper space than any human has ever gone before.
When the Orion capsule passes behind the Moon, there will be a communication outage with Earth for approximately 40 minutes due to the Moon’s surface blocking radio signals. During this “silent” period, astronauts will continue their mission without being able to connect to the Deep Space Network.
