The Artemis II crew participated in an unprecedented 15-minute audio call with astronauts stationed on the International Space Station.

The crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission achieved another milestone this week when they conducted the first-ever direct communication between astronauts on a lunar voyage and astronauts in Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station. Scientific American reports that the Artemis II crew, traveling more than 200,000 miles from Earth, participated in an unprecedented 15-minute audio call with astronauts stationed on the International Space Station (ISS). This marks the first time in space exploration history that a moon mission has established direct contact with an orbital habitat. The Artemis II team consists of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. They connected with ISS crew members including NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Chris Williams, and Jack Hathaway, as well as European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot. According to Wiseman, the lunar crew was beaming with joy throughout the exchange. During the conversation, the astronauts shared experiences about various aspects of spaceflight, from the mundane to the extraordinary. Meir observed the evident enthusiasm of the moon-bound crew, telling them, “We can tell that you guys are definitely experiencing ‘moon joy.’ I feel like even we are experiencing ‘moon joy’ right now.” The term “moon joy” has emerged as an unofficial catchphrase of the Artemis II mission. The communication took place while the Orion spacecraft, which the crew has named Integrity, was positioned more than 200,000 miles from Earth. In contrast, the ISS maintains an orbit approximately 250 miles above the planet’s surface, highlighting the vast distance separating the two crews. Koch, who has previous experience working aboard the ISS, reflected on how her time on the space station prepared her for the lunar mission. She explained that “basically every single thing that we learned on ISS is up here,” ranging from “the funny and practical—how to eat—[to] how to do silly things with water [to] how to flip around.” However, Koch also noted significant differences between the two experiences, particularly regarding the view of Earth. While acknowledging that the perspectives from the space station are impressive, she emphasized that observing Earth from the moon’s vicinity revealed something quite different. She was struck by the amount of darkness surrounding the planet. “It truly emphasized how alike we are, how the same thing keeps every single person on planet Earth alive. We evolved on the same planet. We have some shared things about how we love and live that are just universal. The specialness and preciousness of that really is emphasized when you notice how much else there is around it,” Koch said. Breitbart News previously reported on another tech highlight of the Artemis II mission, stunning pictures of the Earth taken with standard iPhones. Not all the tech aboard the Artemis II mission has performed well. Breitbart News previously reported that the astronauts experienced the same kind of Microsoft Outlook glitches that many Americans experience in the office: Mission Commander Reid Wiseman reported the Outlook issue to Houston-based mission control approximately seven hours after the historic launch. “I also see that I have two Microsoft Outlooks and neither one of those are working,” Wiseman communicated over dispatch. He followed up with a request for assistance: “If you want to remote in and check the Optimus and those two Outlooks that would be awesome.” Mission control responded by planning to access the shuttle’s PCD, or personal computing device, remotely to address the malfunction. These specialized tablets serve as essential tools for astronauts, enabling them to handle routine communications with Earth-based personnel and review mission documentation throughout their journey. The crew has also had multiple problems with the spacecraft’s toilet system: “It’s an issue with dumping the waste out of the toilet,” Artemis II Flight Director Judd Frieling told reporters Saturday morning. “And so it appears to me that we probably have some frozen urine in the vent line.” As AP reports, the three Americans and one Canadian will reach their destination Monday, photographing the mysterious lunar far side as they zoom around it before heading back to earth. It is the first moon-bound crew in more than 53 years, picking up where NASA’s Apollo program left off, however the toilet system is still refusing to cooperate with mysterious “smells” emanating from the facility alongside possibly clogged plumbing. Read more at Scientific American here.

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