The four astronauts aboard the Orion capsule have spent the last several hours preparing for their swing around the far side of the moon. They’re to take new images of the lunar face that’s never visible from Earth, go through about 40 minutes of radio silence as the moon blocks transmissions—and, just after 7 p.m. eastern time, reach the farthest distance humans have been from their home planet. (The Logic)

Talking point: This crew, including Canadian Jeremy Hansen, are to set the distance record on purpose. The astronauts of the Apollo 13 mission (including Jim Lovell, who recorded a message for the Artemis crew before he died last year, which NASA played for them today) have held it since 1970 thanks to the slingshot manoeuvre that let them return home after an oxygen-tank rupture. The Artemis II astronauts have already seen lunar features no human eyes ever have directly, and their new images will feed human understanding of how Earth’s major satellite developed.