Astronauts aboard Orion mark a major milestone while facing minor technical hiccups
April 5, 2026: NASA on Sunday shared a striking image of the Moon captured by the Artemis II crew, revealing the full view of the Orientale Basin—an area never before seen entirely by human eyes. The astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft—Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch—are on a mission to fly around the Moon and photograph its far side. This marks the first time humans have travelled toward the Moon since Apollo 17, with Koch and Glover set to become the first woman and first Black astronaut, respectively, to undertake such a journey.
The mission is a key step in reviving human lunar exploration, aiming to travel over 400,000 km from Earth before looping around the Moon and returning without landing. The nearly 10-day journey has already crossed its halfway mark and is expected to conclude with a splashdown on April 10. Artemis II also seeks to break previous human spaceflight distance records, surpassing those set by Apollo 13, and serves as a precursor to future crewed lunar landings planned later this decade.
Despite the mission’s success so far, the crew encountered a minor technical issue involving the spacecraft’s toilet system, reportedly affected by ice blockage. Mission officials confirmed that while the system is not fully operational, it remains usable and does not pose a risk to the astronauts. The mission continues to progress smoothly, bringing NASA closer to its long-term goal of establishing a sustainable human presence on the Moon by 2028.