The crew of the Artemis II mission is halfway to Earth.

The crew of the Orion spacecraft as part of the Artemis II mission has reached the halfway point from the Moon to Earth. This was announced on April 9 by the NASA press service.

"The astronauts of the Artemis II mission have reached the halfway point between the Moon and the Earth," reads a message on the social network X (ex. Twitter).

According to NASA, the ship is planned to be grounded in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego. It is expected that this will happen on April 10 at about 20:07 Eastern time (04:07 Moscow time on April 11).

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The Artemis II mission took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1. For the first time in half a century, humanity has sent astronauts to the moon again. It was noted that during the preparation of the launch, a malfunction in the communication system was found that could disrupt the flight.

On April 4, NASA announced that the four astronauts of the mission had traveled halfway from Earth to the Moon. It was clarified that Orion had covered a distance of more than 230 thousand km from Earth. After orbiting the Moon during the Artemis II mission, the Orion spacecraft will head towards Earth.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.