‘Absolutely spectacular’: Artemis II crew see first glimpse of far side of Moon
Absolutely Spectacular: Artemis II Crew Witnesses Far Side of Moon
Nasa’s Artemis II mission team has captured the first human view of the Moon’s far side. The astronauts—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency representative Jeremy Hansen—have spent three days aboard the Orion spacecraft, orbiting the lunar far side before returning to Earth. During their journey, Koch noted the Moon appeared unfamiliar, as if it were a different celestial body than she had seen before.
“Something about you senses that is not the Moon that I’m used to seeing,” Koch remarked.
The crew shared an image of the Orientale basin, which Nasa highlighted as the first time the entire structure has been observed by human eyes. As of 23:00 BST on Saturday, the spacecraft was over 180,000 miles (289,681km) from Earth, according to Nasa’s tracking dashboard.
Other News from the Week
Meanwhile, the Great Marshmallow Drop event saw more than 15,000 fluffy treats cascade from a helicopter as children scrambled to collect them. At the Supreme Court, BBC correspondent Ione Wells interviewed demonstrators and attendees during a hearing on President Donald Trump’s executive order. The average fuel price in the US surpassed $4, a level not seen since 2022, due to ongoing tensions with Iran.
A farmer in Alabama, speaking with BBC’s Gary O’Donoghue, expressed continued support for Trump despite financial strain. The “A throne fit for a king” installation on the National Mall served as a commentary on White House renovations. Large protests against the Trump administration occurred in multiple US cities, including the third No Kings rally.
At the New York airport, crews addressed a sinkhole blocking one of two runways. The yellow Labrador Retriever Tessie, involved in the incident, suffered no injuries and was returned to her yard. BBC Verify analyzed the moments leading to a deadly collision with a fire truck on the airport’s runway. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were deployed to assist TSA during a partial government shutdown, which caused some of the longest delays in the country.
Conservatives at the annual CPAC conference in Texas offered mixed assessments of the current economic state. The recent jury verdict in Los Angeles found Meta and Google intentionally designed addictive social media platforms that negatively impact young users’ mental health. Savannah Guthrie, in her first interview since her mother’s disappearance, recounted learning of her mother’s absence and reflecting on whether her fame made her a target.
Valero reported no injuries following a refinery incident, as noted by the BBC’s US news partner CBS. An Air Canada flight carrying 72 passengers and four crew members landed safely from Montreal before colliding with a firefighting vehicle on the runway. This event marked the province’s secularism law, Bill 21, facing legal scrutiny at Canada’s Supreme Court.
