Artemis II crew enters moon’s gravitational grip ahead of historic flyby

Before going to sleep on flight day five, the Artemis II crew snapped one more photo of the moon as it drew close in the window of the Orion spacecraft. Photograph: Nasa

The four astronauts on Nasa’s Artemis II mission are poised to begin the first flyby of the far side of the moon in more than half a century, bringing them to the furthest point from Earth ever reached by humans.

The crew of three Americans and one Canadian earlier entered the moon’s “sphere of influence”, where its gravity has a stronger pull on the spacecraft than Earth’s.