Seven Crucial Hours Behind The Moon: What NASA Astronauts Will Do During Historic Flyby

Last Updated:April 06, 2026, 15:36 IST

The spacecraft will escape Earth’s gravity and get pulled by the Moon. Soon after, the crew will see Earth disappearing from view and experience a communication blackout

NASA is counting down to Monday night when four of its astronauts aboard Artemis-II leave Earth’s sphere of influence, and get pulled by the Moon’s gravity, beginning the historic lunar flyby—a first for any crewed spacecraft. The moment marks a rare opportunity for humans to witness the Moon’s far side with their own eyes, for the first time ever.

“We are very excited. I think, the moment the spacecraft leaves Earth’s gravity, and gets pulled by the Moon more strongly than Earth, we will know that we have arrived," said Dr Lori Glaze, Deputy Associate Administrator, NASA’s Exploration Systems Development, during the press briefing.

Several robotic missions have landed on the Moon in the last five decades, including two from China’s Chang’e programme that touched down on the far side, and even collected and returned with lunar samples. But no human has ever gone that far into space, let alone see the far side of the Moon, which is always dark and faces away from Earth.

The NASA crew aboard spacecraft Orion is set to make history as it inches closer to the Moon. According to NASA’s mission timeline, at about 10.30pm IST on Monday, it would enter the lunar sphere of influence. At around 11.26pm IST, the spacecraft would surpass the Apollo 13 distance record as the farthest crewed spacecraft from Earth. The historic lunar flyby is scheduled to begin around 12.15am IST on Tuesday and continue till 6.50am IST on Tuesday, lasting for about seven hours during which the spacecraft will remain behind the Moon.

WHAT WILL THE ASTRONAUTS DO?

The space agency has crafted a detailed targeting plan for each of the four astronauts as they witness the transition of the Moon from their own eyes. “It will be mostly dark, but their eyes will adjust as they keep looking. We have identified eight targets that we would like the crew to see and describe. They can take about eight minutes each for the target, extending up to 20 minutes if it requires more detailing. They all are field scientists, so they can go off book, if they see something interesting," said Dr Kelsey Young, Artemis-II Lunar Science Lead.

The crew will work in pairs, with one pair looking through each of the two windows and collecting data, as the other pair conducts tasks on the spacecraft, swapping roles every hour. While one astronaut will image the lunar surface using cameras, the other will describe each target with unaided eyes. The crew has been trained extensively over the past few months on the features they need to look out for. There will be an hour-long break.

COMMUNICATION BLACKOUT, STUNNING EARTH RISE, AND A SOLAR ECLIPSE

As the spacecraft begins the lunar flyby, the astronauts would see Earth disappearing from their view, and experience a roughly 40 minutes of communication blackout at around 4.17am as they float into space. At about 4.32am IST, the crew will have the closest approach to the Moon and at this moment, they will also be the farthest humans have gone from Earth. Soon after they would witness the stunning Earth-rise as they emerge from behind the Moon.

With the mission on track, another unique opportunity will arise when the crew will witness a Solar Eclipse with the Sun disappearing behind the Moon. “The crew will be able to observe the Solar corona, and even view other planets like Venus, Mars, Saturn and Mercury. This mission will really help us understand better how we can support the astronauts in deep space missions, and co-ordination with ground teams," said Dr Young.

Apart from being a critical scientific milestone for the agency, the mission is drawing attention also because of the 10 scientific objectives. “Moon and Earth are made up of the same materials. Way back, when proto-Earth was hit by a Mars-size object, that collision created a lot of debris which coalesced to form Earth and Moon. They share the same material, and the Moon has been a witness plate to Earth’s magnificent evolution over billions of years. With this mission, we get to grow our knowledge and complement the robotic missions. There is a lot of science aboard – human health studies, on how we can keep the crew healthy in deep space. Every piece of information will feed into our future missions," said Dr Glaze, Deputy Associate Administrator, NASA’s Exploration Systems Development.

Meanwhile, the crew has also been practicing manual piloting of the spacecraft, trying on their bulky orange space suits and testing their endurance, as well as evaluating the carbon dioxide removal technology of the spacecraft which has gone into space for the first time with a crew.

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