Flight Day 7 of the Artemis 2 mission offered the crew—including CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen—a slightly quieter schedule following the intense activity of the lunar flyby. The day kicked off with the release of spectacular new imagery, including a stunning view of a total solar eclipse captured from the Moon, revealing the Sun’s corona and the softly illuminated lunar surface.
The crew’s operational day was highlighted by a historic first: a ship-to-ship radio call between the Orion spacecraft in deep space and the International Space Station in low Earth orbit. The astronauts swapped perspectives, joking about which crew was currently the “farthest away,” while reflecting on the profound beauty and fragility of Earth against the blackness of space.
Following a detailed debrief with the lunar science team to review their flyby observations, the crew focused on navigation. At 7:03 p.m. CT, Orion’s service module successfully executed the Return Trajectory Correction 1 (RTC-1) burn, a brief maneuver using the reaction control system thrusters to fine-tune the spacecraft’s path home. With the Moon now firmly in the rearview mirror, Orion is cruising back toward Earth ahead of its planned splashdown.