{"id":2486,"date":"2026-04-07T06:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T06:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=2486"},"modified":"2026-04-07T06:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T06:12:09","slug":"d41586-026-00989-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=2486","title":{"rendered":"Trump congratulates Artemis crew on successful mission so far"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"The
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The four Artemis II astronauts inside of the Orion<\/i> capsule before they spoke to US President Donald Trump, after the Moon fly-by.<\/span>Credit: NASA<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/picture><\/figure>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 10.05 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

The astronauts spoke over a phone link with US President Donald Trump on their way back from the Moon. Continuing a tradition that stems back to President Richard Nixon calling Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface in 1969, Trump congratulated the Artemis II crew for their successful mission so far. \u201cYou really are modern-day pioneers, all of you,\u201d he told the astronauts. <\/p>\n

Trump asked how the far side of the Moon looked, and how it felt to be out of touch with the rest of humanity. Wiseman talked about the low lighting on the lunar far side, and how they saw the Sun, Moon and planets lined up during the eclipse they witnessed. Glover said they were busy working while they were out of communication, \u201cand I must say it was actually quite nice\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a lot of courage doing what you\u2019re doing,\u201d Trump told the crew. \u201cA lot of bravery.\u201d <\/p>\n

This wraps our coverage of the Artemis II Moon flyby. Stay tuned to nature.com\/news<\/a>, and Nature\u2019s<\/i> social media channels, for ongoing coverage of the mission.<\/p>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 8.34 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

The lunar fly-by is nearly over. So what\u2019s next for the Artemis II mission?<\/p>\n

Tomorrow morning the astronauts will meet (virtually!) with the mission\u2019s science team to talk about some of the observations they made of the Moon\u2019s far side. Then they will spend the next three days flying back to Earth.<\/p>\n

On Friday 10 April they will return to our planet in spectacular fashion. The Orion<\/i> capsule will separate from the service module that has provided it with power and propulsion during its journey. As it enters Earth\u2019s atmosphere it will begin to heat up and slow down. (There is some debate about how well the heat shield will protect the capsule as it travels through scorching temperatures, although NASA seems confident it will survive just fine.) The capsule will unfurl a series of parachutes to slow it down even more, and ultimately Orion will splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.<\/p>\n

A team of Navy divers, working with NASA, will retrieve the astronauts from the capsule and bring them back on shore \u2014 their welcome back to terra firma. \u2014 Alexandra Witze<\/i><\/p>\n

\"Artemis
\n

Credit: Jasiek Krzysztofiak\/Nature<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/picture><\/figure>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 8.12 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

Impact! The astronauts have observed at least four \u2018impact flashes\u2019 caused by micrometeorites hitting the lunar surface. Mission scientists had hoped the crew would catch a glimpse of these flashes of light but did not know how easy they would be to see. Apollo astronauts saw at least three of them on the night side of the Moon during their flights in the 1960s and 1970s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncredible news, Reid,\u201d science officer Kelsey Young told astronaut Reid Wiseman. Amateur astronomers and citizen scientists have been monitoring the Moon as well during the Artemis II flight, to see if they can also detect flashes on the dark part of the Moon.<\/p>\n

The solar eclipse is underway, and Wiseman says he did not anticipate just how much sunlight would still illuminate the Moon from behind. \u201cThe entire Moon is lit up, it\u2019s glowing behind the entire Moon,\u201d he said. \u2014 Alexandra Witze<\/i><\/p>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 7:45 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

Reader question: How long will it take to build a base on the Moon?<\/h2>\n

NASA has talked about building a Moon base for decades, with plans waxing and waning over the years as political priorities shifted. But with a human mission flying past the Moon today, there\u2019s no question that the US is closer to that goal than it\u2019s been in decades.<\/p>\n

The question is whether NASA can follow through on plans to come after Artemis II. Most immediately, the astronauts have to return safely to Earth on 10 April. After that, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman has said he wants the next Artemis flight to take place next year, to test components in Earth orbit that would be used to carry humans to the lunar surface on future flights. <\/p>\n

After that, Isaacman envisions ramping up launches and delivering loads of cargo to the lunar surface to help construct the base. He wants to see a base finished by 2036, at a cost of US$30 billion. NASA has proposed slashing its science programmes in order to help pay for human spaceflight priorities such as the Moon base. \u2014 Alexandra Witze<\/i><\/p>\n

\"NASA
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Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman peered out of one of the Orion spacecraft’s main cabin windows, looking back at Earth, on 4 April.<\/span>Credit: NASA<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/picture><\/figure>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 7:15 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

The Artemis astronauts are about to experience a solar eclipse.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a total solar eclipse that you might think of here on Earth, where the Moon blocks the Sun\u2019s light almost perfectly such that the Sun\u2019s wispy outer atmosphere \u2014 its corona \u2014 becomes a visible wraith around a dark void. From Orion\u2019s<\/i> viewpoint, the small Sun will simply pass behind the much-larger Moon for just under an hour. <\/p>\n

As the Sun slides behind the Moon\u2019s disk and out again, the astronauts will glimpse part of its corona. They will observe and map how it looks, from a different three-dimensional vantage point than researchers can get with ground-based or space-based telescopes.<\/p>\n

Because the solar corona changes shape and appearance every day, in particular when the Sun is more active, researchers are interested in all the data they can get on how it appears from different angles at different points in time. \u2014 Alexandra Witze<\/i> <\/p>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 6.42 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

Orion<\/i> has emerged from the far side of the Moon, and the astronauts are back in touch with mission control.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is so great to hear from Earth again,\u201d said astronaut Christina Koch, as communications were re-established. \u201cUltimately, we will always choose Earth, we will always choose each other.\u201d <\/p>\n

After 40 minutes of being out of contact, the astronauts photographed Earth \u2018rising\u2019 from behind the dark lunar disk. The bright Earth slid out from behind the dark Moon; the astronauts are looking along the Moon\u2019s edge to see if they can spot any Moon dust illuminated from behind. This is a rare chance to hunt for lunar dust that is normally too faint to see. <\/p>\n

The Earthrise doesn\u2019t look like the famous \u2018Earthrise\u2019 image from the Apollo 8 mission in 1968. Back then, the Apollo astronauts weren\u2019t anticipating the Earth to appear, and were caught somewhat off guard and scrambled to photograph the blue-and-white globe emerging from below the gray lunar horizon. The image became an icon of the US environmental movement of the 1970s.<\/p>\n

Artemis II astronauts are seeing an Earth rise that is a slim crescent, just a fraction of our planet writ whole. \u2014 Alexandra Witze<\/i><\/p>\n

\"The
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View of the Moon (and a sliver of Earth) from the Orion<\/i> capsule just before the crew went into a communications blackout.<\/span>Credit: NASA<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/picture><\/figure>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 6.01 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

The Orion<\/i> capsule has just made its closest pass by the Moon, at a distance of 4,067 miles (6,545 kilometres) from the surface. In a few minutes, it will set yet another record: reaching a maximum distance from Earth, now estimated at 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometres). \u2014 Alexandra Witze<\/i><\/p>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 5.43 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

Communications with the astronauts are are dropping out for a while. As Orion<\/i> passes behind the Moon, it and mission controllers back on Earth will lose contact for around 40 minutes. This is because the Moon is literally in the way. And unlike China, which has sent two telecommunications satellites to orbit the Moon, the United States does not have any lunar infrastructure in place to relay signals from the far side.<\/p>\n

Expect a few nail-biting moments until the astronauts re-emerge. \u201cEvery time we see [the drop in comms], it is just like a movie,\u201d says Barbara Cohen, a planetary scientist who is on the Artemis II lunar science team. \u201cHey, are you back yet? Hey, are you back yet?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will see you on the other side,\u201d astronaut Victor Glover told NASA. \u2014 Alexandra Witze<\/i><\/p>\n

\"NASA
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Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch on the fourth day of the mission.<\/span>Credit: NASA<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/picture><\/figure>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 5.33 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

The astronauts have also been remarking quite a bit on the Moon\u2019s \u2018terminator\u2019. This is the boundary between its illuminated side and its dark side that constantly moves as the Moon rotates on its axis. Astronomers like to observe the Moon along its terminator because the changing light conditions can reveal additional details about mountains, craters, valleys and other geological phenomena.<\/p>\n

Artemis II astronaut and pilot Victor Glover in particular sounds captivated by the Moon\u2019s terminator today. \u201cWhat it does to the features of the Moon, to the terrain\u2026there\u2019s just so much magic in the terminator,\u201d he said. \u201cThe islands of light, the valleys that look like black holes [where] you\u2019d fall straight to the centre of the Moon if you stepped in some of those. It\u2019s just so visually captivating \u2014 the terminator is the most striking thing I\u2019ve seen so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

To him, one crater along the terminator looked like a dinosaur footprint. \u2014 Alexandra Witze<\/i><\/p>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 5.07 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cFull Moon Joy\u201d is becoming somewhat of a catchphrase of this mission, the NASA commentator just noted on the livestream for the Moon fly-by. That stems from an exchange between Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman and mission control in Houston a few days ago. Wiseman spooled off a list of the various Moon features he was seeing up close for the first time: \u201cJust seeing Tycho, there\u2019s mountains to the north. You can see Copernicus, Reiner Gamma. It\u2019s just everything in three dimensions and absolutely unbelievable. This is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCopy, Moon joy,\u201d mission control radioed back. <\/p>\n

Scientists on the Artemis II mission team are talking about having T-shirts made with the phrase \u201cCopy, moon joy\u201d on them. \u2014 Alexandra Witze<\/i><\/p>\n

\"NASA
\n

Nature<\/i> correspondent Alexandra Witze has been interacting with the Artemis II mission scientists throughout the day. Here\u2019s a shot she took from inside the science evaluation room.<\/span>Credit: Alexandra Witze\/Nature<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/picture><\/figure>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 5.01 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

The astronauts have been asking the science team some nerdy questions about what they\u2019re seeing. One of the main things the crew are looking at is the Orientale basin<\/a>, a 3.8-billion-year-old impact basin with three enormous concentric rings. Astronaut Reid Wiseman reported seeing brownish tones in the outer part of Orientale, although his colleague Victor Glover didn\u2019t quite see the same colouration. Brown is becoming something of a theme for today. The Moon, to human eyes that are closer to it, might appear more brown and less grey than we Earth-bound observers see.<\/p>\n

To try to keep their eyes attuned to subtle colour differences on the lunar surface, the astronauts have put a T-shirt across one of the capsule\u2019s windows to help block light. They\u2019re calling it a shroud. It did, however, cause more condensation than they would have liked, so the astronauts have been using a condensation hose to try to dry things up. \u2014 Alexandra Witze<\/i><\/p>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 4.33 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

Nature<\/i> correspondent Alexandra Witze is with the mission scientists today at Johnson Space Center in Houston. She asked them how they\u2019re feeling and what they\u2019re most excited for the astronauts to observe on the Moon. Check out this video, put together from Alex\u2019s interviews. We\u2019re gonna be crying a lot over here too, scientists.<\/p>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 4.19 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

Reader question: The astronauts are seeing parts of the Moon that the human eye hasn\u2019t seen before. Why?<\/h2>\n

We\u2019ve put together a graphic to answer this one. Apollo astronauts travelled closer to the lunar surface than the Artemis II astronauts are. This means that the Apollo crews saw only small swathes of the lunar surface. They also saw the far side in darkness because their mission trajectory was designed to land astronauts on the near side during daylight. <\/p>\n

So the Artemis II astronauts are indeed seeing parts of the far side, illuminated, for the first time in human history. Approximately 21% of the far side\u2019s disk (including the Orientale impact basin) is in sunlight during today\u2019s fly-by. The rest of the Moon that they are seeing illuminated today is its much more familiar near side.<\/p>\n

\"The
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Image credit: NASA<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/picture><\/figure>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 4.03 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

The astronauts have been switching spots at the capsule windows. Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen were the first to do observations and take photos. Then it was Christina Koch and Victor Glover\u2019s turn. Now, they\u2019re about to switch back.<\/p>\n

The astronauts have three cameras on board: two Nikon D5 DSLRs, which are the workhorses of spaceflight photography, and one Nikon Z9, a newer mirrorless camera that was added at nearly the last moment. These automatically take three exposures for every press of the button. The first is an exposure that the Artemis II team members think is correct for the lighting conditions in that moment, the second is one that they think will be underexposed and the third is one that they think will be overexposed \u2014 to be sure one of the images will turn out well.<\/p>\n

They are using a 400-millimetre lens to get as much detail as possible of the lunar disk. The astronauts observe the Moon in pairs, one photographing the surface while the other observes with the naked eye. They have trained to recognize basic geological features of the Moon, including the massive Orientale impact basin that is a major focus of today\u2019s studies because it has never been observed fully by the human eye before. \u2014 Alexandra Witze<\/i><\/p>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 3.18 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

Reader question: Do the astronauts have science in their backgrounds?<\/h2>\n

Some of them do, yes. Mission specialist Christina Koch is an engineer who worked at scientific field stations in Greenland and Antarctica. Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen has a master\u2019s degree in physics and worked at the underwater Aquarius laboratory off the coast of Florida, which is meant to emulate deep-space flight. (Incidentally, although this is Hansen\u2019s first flight to space, Koch holds a number of spaceflight records.)<\/p>\n

Reid Wiseman, the commander, set a record for science in orbit when he and a colleague performed 82 hours of research on the International Space Station during a single week in 2014. <\/p>\n

The fourth astronaut, pilot Victor Glover, is a Navy aviator and test pilot. \u2014 Alexandra Witze<\/i><\/p>\n

\"The
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The Artemis II crew during a training session at Johnson Space Center in Houston.<\/span>Credit: NASA\/James Blair<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/picture><\/figure>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 2.51 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

The Artemis II lunar science team is getting what they were hoping for. On board the Orion<\/i> capsule, the astronauts have observed craters at the north and south poles. Colour differences continue to be a theme: \u201cThe more I look at the Moon, the browner and browner it looks,\u201d one of the astronauts said.<\/p>\n

Astronaut and pilot Victor Glover is describing some challenges in looking from his dim laptop to the bright Moon and back down again, all while juggling logistics to capture the grandeur of the moment. \u2014 Alexandra Witze<\/i><\/p>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 2.34 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been fortunate enough to gain access to the \u2018science evaluation room\u2019, a brand-new workspace in the main mission control building at Johnson Space Center in Houston. This is the kind of thing that sounds really bureaucratic, but in the extremely hierarchical world of NASA human spaceflight, it\u2019s a big deal for science to have its own space. There\u2019s a cluster of science specialists working together here to feed information and research to a top \u2018science officer\u2019 \u2014 planetary scientist Kelsey Young \u2014 who has a seat in the primary mission control room. (They don\u2019t let reporters in that room generally.)<\/p>\n

The mood here is quiet, tense and full of anticipation. There was no celebratory moment to mark the start of the lunar fly-by \u2014 just a bunch of scientists focusing on their display screens with visualizations of the lunar surface and the capsule trajectory.<\/p>\n

Christina Koch, one of the astronauts, told mission control that they were comparing the brightnesses of Earth and the Moon. Young noted that as the astronauts\u2019 eyes adjust, more features might become visible. The crew has turned down lights in the capsule to help their eyes adapt to darkness.<\/p>\n

The astronauts have reported seeing green and brown colours in the Aristarchus region of the Moon\u2019s near side. That\u2019s a part of the Moon that astronomers can see from Earth, but the report of colour variations caused an excited murmur in the room. The scientists are keen to have any colour reports like this from up close at the lunar surface. \u2014 Alexandra Witze<\/i><\/p>\n

\"Artemis
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Science officer Kelsey Young monitors Artemis II operations from a console inside NASA\u2019s mission control in Houston.<\/span>Credit: NASA\/Bill Stafford<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/picture><\/figure>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 2.16 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

This morning, reporters \u2014 including yours truly \u2014 visited mission control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. This is the nerve centre of the Artemis II mission. And it\u2019s the room where the flight director and the capcom (the astronaut designated to communicate with the Orion<\/i> capsule) sit, as well as the room that holds all those consoles you\u2019ve seen in film documentaries. Huge display screens showed the countdown to various mission milestones, including splashdown on 10 April.<\/p>\n

We were there when mission control broadcast a message from legendary Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell to the Artemis II crew, as they woke this morning, the day of their lunar fly-by. \u201cWelcome to my old neighbourhood,\u201d said Lovell, who piloted the 1968 Apollo 8 mission that was the first to fly humans around the Moon, just as Artemis II is doing today. \u201cDon\u2019t forget to enjoy the view,\u201d he said. \u201cGood luck, godspeed, from all of us here on the good Earth.\u201d Lovell recorded the message before he died on 7 August last year. \u2014 Alexandra Witze<\/i><\/p>\n

\"Houston
\n

NASA staff members were posing for a photo this morning as Nature<\/i> correspondent Alexandra Witze visited mission control.<\/span>Credit: Alexandra Witze\/Nature<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/picture><\/figure>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 2.07 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

As the Artemis II crew set their distance record from Earth, they made a request: to name some \u201crelatively fresh craters on the Moon that have not been previously named\u201d. In particular, they suggested names for two craters that they observed from Orion<\/i>\u2019s windows this morning and that were originally pointed out to them by the science team. They suggested naming the first, north of the massive Orientale basin on the Moon\u2019s far side, Integrity, after their spacecraft. The second, on the Moon\u2019s near side\u2013far side border, they asked to name Carroll, after commander Reid Wiseman\u2019s wife, who passed away in 2020. During certain times of transit, Carroll would be visible on Earth.<\/p>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 1.51 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

The lunar fly-by has begun. I’m in the science evaluation room for the Artemis II mission, where flowers just got delivered for science officer Kelsey Young, from her mother. NASA science head Nicola Fox is also in the house.<\/p>\n

Team leader Marie Henderson just told the assembled scientists that they needed to focus on getting their work done while also appreciating the historic nature of the moment. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be a lot of excitement today,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Then she went around asking the group leaders in the room to give her a \u2018go\u2019 for fly-by. One by one, they all polled \u2018go\u2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are go for lunar flyby,\u201d Henderson said.\u2014 Alexandra Witze<\/i><\/p>\n

Updated 6 April 2026, 1.05 p.m. CDT (Houston time)<\/b><\/p>\n

Artemis astronauts set record for distance travelled from Earth by humans<\/h2>\n

The Artemis II crew has just set a record for the farthest humans have ever travelled from Earth. They have surpassed the record of Apollo 13, set in 1970, of 248,655 statute miles (400,171 kilometres) from our home planet. (Apollo 13 set that record after it suffered an explosion on the way to the Moon, which forced the crew to abort their planned landing and instead slingshot around the far side of the Moon.)<\/p>\n

Some scientists and NASA folks will tell you that the distance record doesn\u2019t really matter. It is, after all, something of an artifice \u2014 there is nothing fundamentally different about the environment that the Artemis II astronauts will be passing through, thousands of kilometres above the Moon\u2019s surface, to the one that Apollo astronauts did, tens to hundreds of kilometres above the surface. But it is a moment to mark in human history, in which people travel farther from planet Earth than ever before.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The four Artemis II astronauts inside of the Orion capsule before they spoke to US President Donald Trump, after the Moon fly-by.Credit: NASA Updated 6 April 2026, 10.05 p.m. CDT (Houston time) The astronauts spoke over a phone link with US President Donald Trump on their way back from the Moon. Continuing a tradition that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}