The Artemis astronauts are venturing farther from Earth than any human has before.
Yet, as our planet diminishes in their view, a continuous connection to mission control in Houston, Texas, has provided a reassuring link to home. The composed guidance from the NASA team has offered the crew a sense of comfort.
That connection is about to be severed.
As the astronauts pass behind the Moon at approximately 23:47 BST on Monday, the lunar body will obstruct the radio and laser signals that enable communication between the spacecraft and Earth.
For roughly 40 minutes, the four astronauts will be alone, contemplating their thoughts and feelings as they traverse the void of space. This marks a profound moment of solitude and silence.
Artemis pilot Victor Glover expressed his hope that the world will unite during this period.
“When we’re behind the Moon, out of contact with everybody, let’s take that as an opportunity,” he told BBC News prior to the mission. “Let’s pray, hope, send your good thoughts and feelings that we get back in contact with the crew.”
Over half a century ago, the Apollo astronauts also experienced the isolation resulting from signal loss during their lunar missions.
Perhaps none more so than Apollo 11’s Michael Collins.
In 1969, while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin etched their names in history with the first steps on the Moon, Collins remained in the command module, orbiting alone.
As his craft passed behind the far side, contact with both the lunar surface duo and mission control was lost for 48 minutes.
In his 1974 memoir, Carrying the Fire, he described feeling “truly alone” and “isolated from any known life,” yet he experienced neither fear nor loneliness.
In subsequent interviews, he recounted the peace and tranquility the radio silence afforded, offering respite from the constant demands of mission control.
Back on Earth, the blackout will be a tense interval for those tasked with maintaining contact with the spacecraft.
At the Goonhilly Earth Station in Cornwall, a massive antenna has been tracking the Orion capsule, meticulously charting its position throughout its journey and relaying this data to NASA headquarters.
Matt Cosby, Goonhilly’s chief technology officer, told the BBC: “This is the first time we’re tracking a spacecraft with humans on it.”
“We’re going to get slightly nervous as it goes behind the Moon, and then we’ll be very excited when we see it again, because we know that they’re all safe.”
The hope is that these communication dropouts will soon be a relic of the past. Cosby asserts that continuous communication will be crucial as NASA, and other global space agencies, develop a lunar base and intensify exploration efforts.
“For a sustainable presence on the Moon, you need the full comms – you need the full 24 hours a day, even on the far side, because the far side will want to be explored as well,” he said.
Initiatives such as the European Space Agency’s Moonlight project are planning to deploy a network of lunar satellites to provide consistent and reliable communication coverage in the future.
For the Artemis astronauts, this period of limited contact will allow them to concentrate solely on the Moon.
They’ll dedicate this time to lunar observation – capturing images, studying its geology, and simply marveling at its splendor.
When they emerge from the Moon’s shadow and communication is re-established, the world will collectively breathe a sigh of relief.
And the history-making astronauts will be able to share their incredible views with everyone back home.
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The crew will not land on the Moon on this current mission, though Nasa is preparing for a potential lunar landing by 2028.
The mission’s last, big push on its lunar journey takes humans out of the Earth’s orbit for the first time since 1972.
The team completes a critical engine burn that will propel the spacecraft to the far side of the Moon.