Look: Final Image of Earth Before Artemis II Goes Silent Behind the Moon
On Monday evening, the Artemis II crew temporarily lost communication with mission control as they passed around the far side of the moon.
The Orion spacecraft, occupied by astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, passed out of direct line of site with Earth during their highly-anticipated lunar flyby. In doing so, they became the first humans in over 50 years to be completely unreachable from Earth.
"While the Artemis II crew are experiencing their own personal solar eclipse, Mission Control will temporarily lose communications with the capsule. This is planned and expected. We anticipate regaining communications in about 30 minutes," NASA wrote in a statement after losing contact with the crew.
Glover, pilot of the Artemis II mission, delivered a parting message along with one final image of the Earth before it "set" over the moon.
"As we prepare to go out of radio communication, we're still able to feel your love from Earth," Glover said. "And to all of you down their on Earth and around Earth, we love you from the moon."
BREAKING: "We love you from the moon."
— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 6, 2026
NASA has temporarily lost communication with the Artemis II crew as the Orion capsule travels around the far side of the moon.
Mission Control estimates the blackout will last roughly 40 minutes.https://t.co/4ZY6nGzp6Q
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"As Orion journeys behind the Moon, radio signals from our networks cannot reach the spacecraft. Orion will go into a planned communications blackout for forty minutes while the Deep Space Network is standing by to reacquire signals," NASA added. "Our astronauts have prepared extensively for every maneuver amid lunar flyby – including the communications blackout. Artemis II Pilot Victor Glover shares a message of love just before Orion's temporarily planned loss of communications with Mission Control."