Right on schedule, NASA’s Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II mission reappeared from behind the Moon and re-established radio contact with Earth after a planned 40-minute blackout, bringing relief to Mission Control and families watching at the launch site.
Engineers first saw the reassuring return of a radio signal on their monitors, followed by a burst of stored telemetry and images, and finally a clear voice from inside the capsule. “Houston, Integrity, comm check,” mission specialist Christina Koch said as she broke the silence, adding, “It is so great to hear from Earth again.”
The period of silence occurred while Orion was out of line-of-sight on the Moon’s far side — the hemisphere permanently turned away from Earth. During that time the spacecraft’s onboard computers executed a critical engine burn out of view and unheard by ground teams. That maneuver was needed to bend Orion onto its return arc toward Earth.
In human spaceflight, that interval always carries a small edge of uncertainty until contact is restored, and Mission Control’s visible relief made that clear. Families in the viewing gallery spent the blackout poring over briefing notes and watching the clock.
Now that communication is restored, engineers will begin downloading the backlog of stored telemetry and the far-side images via NASA’s Deep Space Network — the global array of radio antennas that communicates with deep-space missions. Early thumbnails already hint at some of the most detailed views yet of the Moon’s hidden hemisphere.
For the crew there is little time to savor the moment; teams on the ground will spend the coming days and weeks combing through the data to verify systems performance and to study the new lunar imagery.
Original Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/clyr8k06jv7t
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Publish Date: 2026-04-07 07:16:00
