Artemis II Day 5, the crew kicked off a packed Sunday aboard the Orion spacecraft. Mission Control woke the four astronauts to the beat of CeeLo Green’s “Working Class Heroes (Work).” Additionally, Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke delivered a surprise recorded message, encouraging the crew and honoring the Apollo legacy.
Subsequently, the crew launched into their primary objective for the day. Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA’s Jeremy Hansen began testing their Orion Crew Survival System suits, performing leak checks, simulating seat entry, and assessing mobility. Furthermore, the demonstration evaluated how the suit performs during extended wear in microgravity, including its thermal management and communication systems.
Meanwhile, mission control transmitted the final science agenda. The crew received a list of 30 lunar targets, including the Orientale basin, a nearly 600-mile-wide, 3.8-billion-year-old crater straddling the Moon’s near and far sides. Moreover, they will also study Hertzsprung basin, a degraded crater on the Moon’s far side, comparing it with Orientale to understand how craters evolve over geologic timescales.
As preparations intensified, the trajectory remained sharp. A 14-second correction burn scheduled for Sunday at 11:03 p.m. ET will keep Orion perfectly aligned ahead of Monday’s flyby. Consequently, the crew will cross into the Moon’s gravitational sphere of influence at approximately 12:41 a.m. EDT on April 6.
Finally, history awaits on Monday. The Artemis II crew will surpass Apollo 13’s distance record, reaching a maximum of 252,760 miles from Earth, farther than any humans have ever traveled.
April 6, 2026 | Sources: NASA, ABC News, Space.com, EarthSky
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