Artemis II astronauts catch first glimpse of Moon's far side 'never seen with human eyes'

On Sunday, NASA shared a image of the Moon taken by its Artemis II crew as they travel on a mission around the far side of the Moon. Until yesterday, only robot imagers had seen this region of the moon.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen are currently on the third day of their mission on the Orion spacecraft that will carry them around the Orientale basin on the right edge of the lunar disk, which has never been seen before.

"Something about you senses that is not the Moon that I'm used to seeing," Koch said.

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In an interview with NBC News from space, Koch talked about seeing the moon out the window and realising that it looked different from what she knew.

“The darker parts just aren’t quite in the right place,” she said.

Koch explained that she and her team compared their views to their study materials to understand what they were seeing.

She added: “That is the dark side. That is something we have never seen before.”

Meanwhile, Wiseman called the flight, which has been moon-bound since Thursday evening, a “magnificent accomplishment" and said the astronauts’ ability to analyse both Earth and the moon from their spacecraft has been “truly awe-inspiring".

He said: “The Earth is almost in full eclipse. The moon is almost in full daylight, and the only way you could get that view is to be halfway between the two entities.”