Flipboard Science DeskBy Sunday afternoon, the Artemis II crew had traveled 218,012 miles from Earth. That means the spacecraft was a mere 60,000 miles from the Moon, with a lunar flyby set for Monday, April 6. The crew will get as close at 4,000 miles from the lunar surface as they swing around the far side, becoming the first humans to see it from that perspective (at least as far as we know 🤔). More cool stuff from Yahoo News:
Cito@ScienceDesk Actually, the astronauts of Apollo 8 were the first men to see the far side of the moon with their own eyes, without the aid of optical devices. From their orbital altitude of 69 statute miles, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders were able to describe the surface of the moon in detail. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/moon-looking-moon-apollo-8/
Cromley@ScienceDesk @lisamelton
"the first humans to see it from that perspective"
The sound you just heard was a million space-nerd glasses being pushed up on space-nerd noses. 🤓
Um, actually: Apollos 8, 10, and (famously) 13 circled the moon so their entire crews saw the far side.
Apollos 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 landed on the moon. In each of these missions the Command Module Pilot orbited the moon while the lunar crew ventured to the surface.
So 15 dudes have already seen the far side of the moon IRL, although certainly three of them (Apollo 13 crew) were distracted at the time