Artemis II heads back to Earth after moon flyby

The Artemis II crew began their journey back to Earth after reaching the far side of the moon on Monday, the farthest any human has ever traveled from our planet.

The crew saw parts of the moon’s surface never before seen on their flyby — during which they were out of contact with mission control for about 40 minutes — and requested permission to name two previously unknown craters. They called one Integrity, after the Orion-class capsule they traveled in, and the other one Carroll, after the mission commander Reid Wiseman’s wife, who died of cancer in 2020. “We saw sights that no human has ever seen, not even Apollo,” Wiseman told US President Donald Trump, “and that was amazing for us.”