Signal cut, signal restored: Nasa regains communications with astronauts after expected blackout

NASA mission control in Houston regained communications with Artemis astronauts traveling around the Moon after an expected blackout that lasted some 40 minutes.

Signal cut

"We will always choose Earth, we will always choose each other," said astronaut Christina Koch, in initial comments following the signal cut that happened as their spacecraft passed behind the Moon.

The four Artemis astronauts on a lunar flyby were, as expected, unreachable by Nasa scientists on Earth, during the communications blackout that lasted some 40 minutes as their spacecraft passed behind the Moon. 

"We will see you on the other side," said astronaut Victor Glover, minutes before the connection was lost. 

The crew is performing a more than six-hour lunar observation period, documenting features of the Moon's surface that were previously mostly known via photographs taken by robots.

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The blackout came as the Artemis II crew began the seven-hour flyby of the moon, with Astronauts observing the far side of the moon never seen by humans.

The crew is working in shifts as they make the necessary observations set by the NASA's science team that include future Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission landing site Reiner Gamma, a bright, mysterious swirl the origin of which scientists are still trying to understand, and Glushko, a bright, 27-mile-wide crater known for the white streaks that shoot out from it for up to 500 miles.

"The crew reported colour nuances, which will help enhance scientific understandings of the Moon. Shades of browns and blues that can be picked out with human eyes can help reveal the mineral composition of a feature and its age. As crew reports are received, the science team is updating the observation plan based on their follow-up questions and sending up new guidance to the crew," NASA said in a blog post.

Far side of the moon appears 'browner'

NASA astronaut Christina Koch said that the moon appears to be browner, as opposed to the shades of white and grey seen from the earth.

"Something I just heard from the window team is 'the more I look at the moon, the browner and browner it looks,'" NASA astronaut Christina Koch said.

Koch added that some of the moon's craters look like "a lampshade with tiny pinprick holes,"

"All the really bright, new craters -- some of them are super tiny, most of them are pretty small -- there's a couple that really stand out, obviously, and what it really looks like is a lampshade with tiny pinprick holes and the light shining through," she said.

The crew includes Nasa astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

The Artemis II mission has broken the record for the farthest distance travelled by humans from Earth, breaking the Apollo 13 mission's record of 248,655 miles

The Artemis II reached a maximum distance of 252,752 miles from Earth at 1:57 pm EDT, surpassing the Apollo 13's record in 1970 by about 4,102 miles, Nasa stated in a post on X.