00:00The crew of Artemis II is on their way home. The four astronauts broke the record for distance
00:05traveled by humans into deep space, 252,756 miles, and saw the far side of the lunar surface
00:12with their own eyes. At around 6.43 p.m. New York time Monday, the Orion spacecraft slipped
00:19behind the moon and out of radio contact with Houston. This was the moment just before.
00:24To all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you from the moon.
00:35Houston copies. We'll see you on the other side.
00:39After about 40 minutes, the Orion capsule reestablished contact.
00:43Houston, we have you the same, and it is so great to hear from Earth again.
00:50The crew has been sharing their lunar observations with NASA, received a congratulations from
00:55President Trump, and witnessed a solar eclipse. It's the closest humans have been to the moon
01:01in more than 50 years, Cara.
01:03Extraordinary. And look, it's the closest they've been. They want to get even closer.
01:08And this is why this mission in many ways is sort of a dress rehearsal of sorts. Like,
01:12what are we hearing about the science, the way in which we're going to get people back on it?
01:15Yeah, early as 2028, you know, to get a human or astronaut landing mission. And the dress
01:21rehearsal, because it tests the Orion spacecraft, the SLS launch system. You know, that's why we
01:26decamped to Kennedy Space Center last week.
01:28I mean, it's been emotional and very reflective of these astronauts in many ways, but there's still
01:34more days to go.
01:36Yeah, there is a geopolitical context of a race against China who wants to get to the moon in 2030.
01:40But for these three American astronauts and one Canadian, it's feet of human engineering
01:45and human ability. And the world was watching millions of them on the live feeds last night.
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