Moon fly-by sees astronauts regain contact with Earth

Moon fly-by sees astronauts regain contact with Earth and head for home3 hours agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GooglePallab Ghosh,Science Correspondent,Alison Francis,Senior Science Reporter,Kevin ChurchandEmily SelvaduraiNASAA view from Orion minutes before it disappeared behind the lunar far sideFour astronauts on Nasa's Artemis II mission are on their way back home after a dramatic lunar fly-by that saw them travel further from Earth than any other humans.The crew lost contact with the Earth, as expected, for 40 minutes as they travelled behind the Moon.With communications re-established, astronaut Christina Koch said: "It's so great to hear the Earth again."Soon afterwards the spacecraft dipped to within a few thousand miles of the lunar surface and the crew witnessed a total eclipse of the Sun as the Moon blocked out its light - the first time such a sight has been seen from the Moon's perspective.Watch: Artemis II mission loses contact with Earth for 40 minutesThe Artemis II mission's spacecraft, Orion, broke the record for human travel at about 13:56 EDT (18:56 BST) on Monday, beating a record of 248,655 miles (400,000km) held since 1970 by the Apollo 13 mission.Canadian astronaut Jeremey Hansen acknowleged the achievement with humility."As we surpass the furthest distance humans have ever traveled from planet Earth, we do so in honoring the extraordinary efforts and feats of our predecessors in human space exploration," he said. As the spacecraft approached and the Moon swelled in its windows, the astronauts began working through a checklist of things to record on its surface, taking images with an array of digital cameras and, as Nasa had briefed, making sketches and recording their own audio descriptions of what they saw.The spacecraft was not planning to land on the Moon but fly around its far side, the side which is never visible from Earth. Satellites have photographed the far side before, but the astronauts were...