HOUSTON (AP) 鈥� Still aglow from their triumphant , the Artemis II astronauts made more history Tuesday: calling their friends aboard the hundreds of thousands of miles away as they .
It was the first moonship-to-spaceship radio linkup ever. had no off-the-planet company back in the 1960s and 1970s, the last time humanity set sail for deep space.
“We have been waiting for this like you can鈥檛 imagine,鈥� Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman called out.
For Christina Koch on Artemis II and Jessica Meir aboard the space station, it marked a joyous space reunion despite being 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) apart. The two teamed up for the world’s in 2019 outside the orbiting lab.
Koch told her 鈥渁stro-sister鈥� that she’d hoped to meet up with her again in space 鈥渂ut I never thought it would be like this 鈥� it’s amazing.鈥�
鈥淚’m so happy that we are back in space together,鈥� Meir replied, 鈥渆ven if we are a few miles apart.鈥�
Houston’s Mission Control arranged the cosmic chitchat between the four lunar travelers and the space station’s three NASA and one French residents.
Koch described being awe-struck by not just the beauty of Earth, 鈥渂ut how much blackness there was around it.鈥�
鈥淚t just made it even more special. It truly emphasized how alike we are, how the same thing keeps every single person on planet Earth alive,鈥� she told the space station crew. 鈥淭he specialness and preciousness of that really is emphasized鈥� when viewing the home planet from the moon.
By late Tuesday afternoon, the Artemis II astronauts had beamed back more than 50 gigabytes’ worth of pictures and other data from the previous day’s lunar rendezvous, which set a new distance record for humanity. The highlight: an Earthset photo reminiscent of Apollo 8’s Earthrise shot from 1968.
“While they are inspirational and, I think, allow all of us to really feel a little bit of what they were feeling, there’s also a lot of science hidden inside of those images,” said Mission Control’s lead lunar scientist Kelsey Young. 鈥淭he conversations and the science lessons learned are just beginning.”
During a debriefing with Young, the astronauts recounted how they spotted a cascade of pinpricks of light on the lunar surface from impacting cosmic debris. The flashes lasted mere milliseconds and coincided by chance with Monday evening’s total solar eclipse.
Young said it was too soon to know whether the crew witnessed an actual meteor shower or more random, run-of-the-mill micrometeoroid hits. Either way, there were 鈥渁udible screams of delight鈥� in the science operations center, she said.
Koch described being awe-struck by not just the beauty of Earth, 鈥渂ut how much blackness there was around it.鈥�
鈥淚t just made it even more special. It truly emphasized how alike we are, how the same thing keeps every single person on planet Earth alive,鈥� she told the space station crew. 鈥淭he specialness and preciousness of that really is emphasized鈥� when viewing the home planet from the moon.
The first lunar explorers since Apollo 17 in 1972, Wiseman and his crew are aiming for a splashdown off the San Diego coast on Friday to wrap up the nearly 10-day test flight. The recovery ship USS John P. Murtha left port Tuesday for the target zone.
It sets the stage for next year’s Artemis III, a lunar lander docking demo in orbit around Earth. Artemis IV will follow in 2028 with two astronauts attempting to land near the lunar south pole.
As for the Orion capsule鈥檚 pesky potty, Mission Control assured the astronauts that no maintenance was required Tuesday. The toilet has been on-and-off limits to the crew ever since last week鈥檚 launch, prompting them to rely on a backup bag-and-funnel system for urinating.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told the crew following the lunar flyby Monday night: 鈥淲e definitely have to fix some of the plumbing鈥� ahead of the next Artemis mission. Engineers suspect a clogged filter in the overboard flushing system.
Aside from the toilet and other relatively minor matters, the mission has gone well, Isaacman noted at a news conference Tuesday, 鈥渂ut I’ll breathe easier when we get through reentry and everybody’s under chutes and in the water.鈥�
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