Artemis astronauts pass half-way point on way to Moon

By AFP 4 April 2026, 8:44 am

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This screengrab from a NASA live broadcast video shows (L-R) NASA astronaut and Artemis II Mission Specialist Christina Koch, NASA astronaut and Artemis II pilot Victor Glover, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Artemis II Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman during a press call as they travel to the Moon in the Orion spacecraft, on April 3, 2026 (NASA / AFP)

The four Artemis astronauts have passed the halfway point between Earth and the Moon on the way to their planned lunar flyby, NASA says.

“You are now closer to the moon than you are to us on Earth,” mission control told the astronauts at around 11 p.m. (0400 GMT), according to the space agency’s official live broadcast.

“We all kind of had a collective, I guess, expression of joy at that… We can see the Moon out of the docking hatch right now, it is a beautiful sight,” astronaut Christina Koch replied.

The milestone was hit around two days, five hours and 24 minutes after liftoff, according to the NASA official broadcast.

The US space agency’s online dashboard shows that the Orion spacecraft carrying the astronauts is now more than 219,000 kilometres (136,080 miles) from Earth.

“We’re halfway there,” NASA posts on social media.