The four Artemis astronauts on a lunar flyby are now unreachable by NASA scientists on Earth, an expected communications blackout anticipated to last some 40 minutes as their spacecraft passes behind the Moon. "We will see you on the other side," said astronaut Victor Glover, minutes before the connection was lost.
"We're still going to feel your love from Earth, and to all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you from the Moon," he said.
The crew is performing a more than six-hour lunar observation period, documenting features of the Moon's surface that were previously mostly known via photographs taken by robots.
Astronomy professor Derek Buzasi cast the astronauts' period of solitude as "exciting, in a slightly scary way."
The University of Chicago scholar recalled when the same thing would happen during the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s: "we all held our breaths a little bit."
The NASA crew earlier in the day became the humans to travel furthest from our planet.
The lunar flyby observation period will continue until approximately 9:20pm eastern (0120 GMT).
Near the end of their flyby, the astronauts will witness a solar eclipse, when the Sun will be behind the Moon.
The Orion capsule is zipping around the Moon -- the first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years -- before U-turning and heading back to Earth in a so-called "free-return trajectory," a return-trip that will take about four days.
