Kamal Ghorui
The four astronauts aboard Nasa’s Artemis II mission have crossed a major milestone, travelling more than 150,000 miles (241,000 km) from Earth as they head toward the first crewed lunar flyby in over five decades.Speaking during a live interaction hosted by the Canadian Space Agency on Saturday, Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen described that it felt like he was “falling out of the sky.”‘Like falling out of the sky’Hansen vividly described the spacecraft’s translunar injection burn, a crucial manoeuvre that slingshots the spacecraft toward the Moon.“It just felt like we were falling out of the sky back to Earth, and I said to Reid, ‘It feels like we’re gonna hit it,'” AFP reported quoting Hansen.“It’s amazing that we’re actually gonna go around and miss this thing. It was just so close and so to take all of that in was really phenomenal,” he added.The astronaut was speaking alongside crewmates Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman during the session. “By the time we had a bit of a nap and got up, the Earth was just so far away,” Hansen said, recalling the moment the crew realised how quickly they were leaving home behind.A historic first for CanadaHansen, a former Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot, is on his first spaceflight, and is set to become the first non-American to travel around the Moon.The spacecraft, Orion spacecraft, will next enter the Moon’s gravitational sphere of influence, where lunar gravity overtakes Earth’s pull.Looking ahead, Hansen said he is excited to witness rare celestial views. He hopes to see “an eclipse of the Sun behind the Moon, which will be pretty neat,” along with a close look at the Moon’s far side.Hansen revealed that his passion for space began in childhood after seeing an image of Neil Armstrong on the Moon.Reflecting on the journey, he shared a message for young people, saying “Follow your passions, but also share your passions with other people.”“To get big things done like we’re doing in this capsule, to travel to the moon, to fly around the moon, you need a big team behind you. And that’s true for all of us in our lives,” he added.The 10-day Artemis II mission marks a crucial step in humanity’s return to the Moon, paving the way for future landings and deeper space exploration.
