RICHMOND, Va. — The Artemis II crew is making their way back to Earth from a 10-day mission to the moon, preparing for a Friday evening splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
University of Richmond physics professor Jack Singal said there are few times when looking up into the sky has been more captivating to the public.
“There is so much that’s exciting here. Humans have not gone past low Earth orbit since the end of the Apollo program,” Singal said. “This mission is actually the farthest from Earth that we’ve ever been. The previous record was in Apollo 13 where they swung around the far side of the moon from us and came back around and this time because of the circumstances they went further than that. So it’s really exciting to be back to going out into space.”
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WATCH LIVE: Artemis II to make ‘fireball’ return after historic space journey
Despite Artemis II traveling farther from Earth than any human has gone before, the mission shares connections with past lunar explorations that bring the achievements closer to Central Virginia…